


Fuck is Not a Number

by SnarkySoleil



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Asphyxiation, BDSM, Blindfolds, Bulges and Nooks, Gags, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Multi, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Psionic Bondage, Rope Bondage, Spanking, Threesome - M/M/M, Whipping, everyones crying, give me aftercare or give me death, karkat cries troll ghibli tears, porn with a gentle sprinkling of plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2019-09-17 02:56:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16966377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnarkySoleil/pseuds/SnarkySoleil
Summary: Bored trolls make bad decisions, and after a particularly bad one Karkat insists Sollux get a hobby. After some dabbling in a BDSM forum, Sollux arranges a meetup with someone he ends up having a bit of history with.





	1. Switching it Up

**Author's Note:**

> Based on an ancient roleplay with @eganov, hope you enjoy!

The end of the game had not treated Sollux well. Sure he was alive, plopped down into a new life on a new planet with no one the wiser since the game hadn’t considered him a god or victor. Everyone that had survived in one piece seemed happy or at least functioning, with Karkat taking time off from running around the troll kingdom to pap Sollux on occasion. Sollux should’ve been happy. The game had given him a chance and a new life, although the new memories of his second (or third, or maybe fourth) life tasted alien on his tongue. He had enough money to keep him going, or would have if he hadn’t squandered it.

  
While the game had ended, the doomed voices rattling around Sollux’s pan had not. Now a chorus of foreign tongues clamored within his head, and sopor didn’t exist in this universe. It didn’t need to, without a malevolent force pumping violence into trolls right down to the bones. Sollux tried everything he could. Drinking first, weed second, and the runaway train he’d landed himself on only came to a halt after Karkat caught him sprawled in his living room high as a kite on LSD.

  
Karkat put his foot down, and it took more than a few hours of wheedling pleas from Sollux to convince the enraged mutant not to throw his own moirail into rehab by his bulges. “Figure something out,” Karkat said, eyebrows knitted together into a singular angry caterpillar. Despite his enraged shrieking for a few hours, his shoulders were slumped and his lip trembled. “Find a hobby, anything. God, Sollux, I don’t even see you code anymore.”

 

* * *

 

Sollux did try, really. Nothing stood out to him, not even the myriad of coding languages available to him on this new world. He browsed hobby forums and sites, from model building and tank-keeping right to the downright strange. After scooting a wide berth around tattoo-obsessed body mod sites, his mouse cursor hovered over a modest BDSM forum on the twentieth page of the search engine. Pailing was distracting enough, considering he’d been able to zone out the few times he’d put out for a few pills at clubs. It couldn’t hurt to look.

  
The website only opened up to him once he signed up for an account, using a neutral black color and avoiding his quirk the best he could. Old habits die hard. After waiting ten minutes, TiedandAbjectA10 went live after moderator approval. Sollux leaned back in his chair, scrolling absently as he clicked on the forum section advertised to his area. He didn’t know what to look for, but the terminology swam right over his head like a diseased whale. He knew he wasn’t a dom through and through, but the concept of rolling over like a lowblood “should” left an acrid taste in the back of his throat. God, this whole site was full of subs it looked like, no one wanting to take control for themselves. How could he take control when he didn’t even know what the fuck he was doing?

Eventually, one post caught his eye.

switch4switch: trolls preferred

ChainzxAuthority6A posted:  
hey so im lookin for a switch partner to engage in a no-strings attachment with. Really lookin for partner. no preference on hemocaste. hard nos: genital torture, knifeplay, heatplay, bathroom kinks, gill torture. reply if interested with general info.

Sollux leaned his head on his hand. A few people had already replied, mostly claiming they were either a hard dom or hard sub but could switch occasionally. No one seemed to be getting it right. Something about switching things around more piqued Sollux’s interest, and impulse took hold as he decided to post. He didn’t even have an avatar yet, and he stood out for better or for worse.

TiedandAbjectA10 posted:  
first time switch. psionics available to use and no quadrant requirement. No’s: suffocation, blinding, hemoism. otherwise sharing OP’s no’s. will not be a passive sub and willing to switch mid-scene maybe. interested in ropes.

Sollux hit “publish post” before he could reconsider, scrubbing at his jaw before reaching for a half-empty energy drink from his desk. He’d barely taken a sip before his profile pinged, alerting him to a private message.

ChainzxAuthority6A - subj: Forum Followup  
so i saw your reply and saw youre a psion and im interested. for a lil further information im a troll as well and seadweller and i enjoy switchin. i personally enjoy asphyxiation but only done right so its not a gamechanger. youre new as fuck have you ever even been in the scene before?

TiedandAbjectA10 - subj: re: Forum Followup  
yeah im new to bdsm in general. honestly just picked this up on a whim and just want to try w/someone experienced while i get used to the idea. surprised a seadweller’s willing to give up control so good on you i guess idk. im low yellow are you willing to accept future domming from me?

ChainzxAuthority6A - subj: re: Forum Followup  
i meant the no preference on hemocaste thing. honestly givin up control is relaxin an cathartic. i cant stand gettin constantly forced into submission though because then the whole liberation feel wears off.

TiedandAbjectA10 - subj: re: Forum Followup  
makes sense. but i’ll need some serious convincing that it’s as liberating as you claim. i’ve just been told over and over it’s my job to roll over and take w/e people shit people are throwing. w/e nbd but you got your work cut out for you.

ChainzxAuthority6A - subj: re: Forum Followup  
so what are your poisons? bondage and sensory deprivation for me. really into material mixin too if you throw it together with orgasm denial.

Sollux swallowed, ears going a bit yellow. Wow, so they were just really jumping into it, weren’t they? He shook his head. Whatever. Even if this didn’t pan out, like hell he’d let anyone track him behind seven proxies crammed into his husktop’s guts.

TiedandAbjectA10 - subj: re: Forum Followup  
i can roll w/orgasm denial and psionic dampeners if you can swing that. i guess ropes and whips?? dom wise im not experienced but as long as slurs stay out of it i’m game.

ChainzxAuthority6A - subj: re: Forum Followup  
don’t worry i grew out of my slur slingin at six. but if youre not sure ive got a boatload of shit at my place for you to try out. we can talk negotiations over the next few days, yeah? how we want the scene to go and aftercare too.

TiedandAbjectA10 - subj: re: Forum Followup  
sounds good.

From there the negotiations continued, through the forums and also through text once Sollux felt ready enough to hand his number over. Whenever Karkat asked about his phone exploding Sollux kept a passive face, by this point a master of alt-tabbing to a notepad document of garbage code if the mutant got nosey. He doubted this is what Karkat meant by finding a hobby.

  
After about a week they set a date to meet up, at a bar that was in the middle of town. It wasn’t the nicest bar by any means, halfway between a dive and a sports bar, but every weekend had it bustling with witnesses if either one of them felt threatened. Sollux informed ChainzxAuthority6A of his red-and-blue wristband choice to spot him by, and left for the bar looking for a purple scarf.

  
He hadn’t done much for the meetup besides take a shower, considering remembering he had needs beyond a wifi connection challenged him. He’d told Karkat he’d be out all night which had him bristling, but a few shooshpaps settled any nerves. “I’ll be back by nine tomorrow, promise,” Sollux had said, and left.

  
The bar, Taviel’s, already had filled to bursting by the time he got there. Sollux checked his phone, and breathed a sigh of relief. Right on time. He pushed his way to the front, ordering a house margarita. He managed to convince someone to let him sit at the bar, resting his arm on the counter so his wristband remained on full display to the room.

  
A flash of violet caught his eye and Sollux looked up, meeting the eyes of none other than Eridan fucking Ampora whose jaw had dropped nearly to the floor. Eridan’s fingers twisted in the fabric of his purple scarf, as if he’d wanted it spotted and seemed to simultaneously regret his choice.

  
Sollux turned back to his drink, downing the remainder before turning to face Eridan and sent out a quick text.

> te2t

Eridan jumped a bit, glancing down at his phone that had just buzzed in his hand before snorting and making his way over. He sat down in the seat next to Sollux, letting out a ragged sigh. “Test? Really Sol?” He raised a hand, ordering a gin and tonic. “Small world, huh?”

  
Sollux ordered another margarita for himself, shrugging. “I had to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating or some shit. I didn’t want to open a conversation with you just talking about wanting to tie you up and zap your gills until you drown in your own drool.”

Eridan shivered visibly, a reaction Sollux hadn’t been expecting. His face flushed a vibrant violet, and he coughed into his drink as it was handed to him. “Oh. Uh-” His fins wiggled a bit. “Yeah, I ain’t plannin’ on stabbin’ you in the gut. I do have whips an’ crops though. You still… Into this?”

  
Sollux took his replacement drink from the bartender then, not drinking at first. “I mean, at least I know you’re not a secret serial killer. All of your murdersprees were in the open.”

  
Eridan winced as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Thanks, Sol.” He looked Sollux over again, as if sizing him up. “Guess you know why I ain’t interested in knifeplay.” He rubbed his midsection, the point where Kanaya had sawed him straight in half during the game.

  
“And if you blind me a second time, Ampora, I’ll throttle you with your own spine,” Sollux said, taking a sip of his margarita as Eridan cleared his throat. “But look, at least this way we know what we’re both capable of. I’ve seen you at your worst already and I’ll take anything at this point.” He shook his head, snorting. “I think KK would implode if he knew what was going on.”

  
Eridan let out a sharp laugh. “Jesus, you can trust your fuckin’ gut there, Captor. This ‘debauchery of romance an’ quadrants’ would give him an aneurysm at least.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Don’t tell him I’m here. I can’t face him again.”

  
Sollux shrugged. “I’m already taking this secret to my funeral pyre. He thinks I’m drinking alone today.” He stood up, retrieving his card from the bartender and stretching. “We good?”

  
Eridan nodded, fumbling in his tight jeans for some cash that he left on the counter. “I’ve already got bondage patterns picked out,” he said. “I’m assumin’ since this is your first foray into the scene that you might wanna sub so you can learn the ropes?”

  
Sollux raised an eyebrow. “Was that a pun?” Eridan stared at him, uncomprehending. “About the ropes.”

  
Eridan took another second before burying his face in his palm as he snickered. “God, I’m clever.” He led the way out of the bar, picking up a helmet from a motorcycle parked outside. “I don’t got another helmet,” he said. “Can you follow me?”

  
Sollux nodded. “Lead the way to the kink house, I guess.”

  
Eridan hissed, flipping him off, but donned his helmet and drove off. Sollux hadn’t had much to drink, and his psionics ate alcohol like candy so it took a lot more to get him tipsy anyway. Keeping track of the motorcycle weaving through traffic proved a challenge, and Eridan drove deeper and deeper into unfamiliar territory littered with graffiti and stray humans and trolls alike. Sollux’s stomach tingled with curiosity and anticipation. Did Eridan have some second, secret apartment to do all this shit? This wasn’t the neighborhood of the arrogant little shit of a highblood that he’d known.

  
Eventually Eridan pulled up next to a tall apartment building, leaving enough space for Sollux to park alongside him. Sollux shoved his keys into his pocket, meeting back up with Eridan again. “I think I looked at a place in this neighborhood before Karkat insisted he wasn’t visiting me in a fucking dump. Why here?”

  
Eridan’s fins twisted downwards. “It’s not like I had much of a fuckin’ choice,” he said, slouching a bit. “The inside’s better since they let me remodel it out of my own pocket. But the game gave me shit to work with after everything I did, and I ain’t plannin’ on exposin’ myself to the others again.”

  
Sollux decided not the press the issue, following Eridan inside to the elevator. The fact he still found himself considering BDSM with Eridan Ampora was strange, but it probably would be fine. Eridan seemed more calm and manageable, nothing like the unstable child he had once been. They’d all grown, after the game.

  
Sollux got flashbacks to his own hivestem as they walked, eight stories high with an always broken elevator. He used his psionics to rattle his way up the stairs every time, and had nearly broken his neighbor’s neck once as they carried groceries up to their apartment. Finally, a few floors up, Sollux spoke up. “It’s not your style to lower yourself to this kind of trash-”

  
Eridan hissed again. “It really ain’t your business, so let’s jus’ casually put all thought of that in th’ interesection of ‘fuck’ and ‘no’ an’ focus on what we came here for.”

  
Sollux raised his hands, exposing his wrists in a general _shit, sorry_ gesture. “Look, it’s just different, but I’ll give it a rest. I’ll just pretend I don’t know anything about you for the age six and below. You’re right, it’s not what I’m here for.”

  
The elevator dinged, and Eridan swung open the gates with practiced ease. He unlocked the door and stepped inside, holding the door open for Sollux as he flicked the lights on. “C’mon in.”

  
Sollux looked around. The apartment’s interior seemed more Eridan with pale violet-painted walls, hardwood flooring, and modern furniture. He expected more gaudy highblood trappings, but this seemed like the place of a functioning person for once instead of a genocidal wiggler. The coffee table still had an abandoned, half-eaten tray of brownies covered in plastic wrap along with a bottle of fireball, but otherwise the place seemed clean. “So where’s--”

  
“Here, genius,” Eridan said, leading Sollux to what from the outside seemed to be a guest block. “Had this place decked out and soundproofed the moment I got into the scene.”

  
Sollux followed after the seadweller, and gawked. The walls here were a deeper violet, with the lights all at about half-intensity. A bed stood in the middle of the room, with no sheets and an absurd amount of pillows, but that platform looked pale in comparison compared to the wide assortment of equipment on racks and wallmounts all around the room. Eridan turned to face Sollux, rolling his shoulders before folding his arms. “You can look aroun’ ‘an’ look into th’ stuff if you want.”

  
“What happened to not having money?” Sollux said, eying a very fancy looking leather harness.

  
Eridan huffed, taking a few crops off the wall and testing their speed. “I worked two jobs for this, shut up. I ain’t gettin’ shit handed to me anymore.”

  
The way the crops whistled through the air, with the promise of at least one of them making eventual contact to Sollux’s skin, had a thrill running up from his nook along his spine. “Whips are whips, right? What does having five different ones do?”

  
Eridan shrugged, moving now to a little rack of ropes. “Some are gifts, but you really are ignorant.” He selected one red rope, then a blue one, both matching Sollux’s psionic eyes. “You get a different kinda bite with each one used different. Masterin’ the use of these things to make sure it’s actually pleasurable without rupturin’ a kidney or somethin’ ain’t easy.”

  
Sollux shuffled a bit in place, before deciding to bite the bullet so they could get started. “Okay so I know we said we were going freeform with this, but I remember you really into the master servant thing. Don’t expect me to be kissing your ass right away. That’s not what I’m about.”

  
Eridan had seemed nervous up to this point, but concealed in this room of his he carried himself differently. His back seemed straighter, and a lazy grin spread across his face as Sollux spoke. “I can work with that. I mean, considerin’ the kinda things you mentioned you were into, we could work in a li’l punishment for disobedience if you wanna try that out.” His expression fell into something more serious then. “Safeword, Captor?”

  
Sollux scrambled to pull something out of his head, before finally speaking up. “Binary.”

  
“Binary,” Eridan repeated, running his tongue over his sharp teeth. Sollux shivered again at the expression. He never thought his nook would clench at the sight of a predatory seadweller. Eridan tossed the ropes he held over to the bed then, before grabbing a pair of cuffs off a shelf. “Psionic dampeners,” he said. “Clothes off, Captor, then I’ll put these on.”

  
“You sure this will work the whole time? I’ve flown a fucking asteroid with my psionics.” Sollux started stripping down without fanfare, not one for show.

  
Eridan leaned a hand behind him on the bed as he watched Sollux undress. “Heard you ended up killin’ yourself doin’ it, too. Look, I ain’t about t’go with weak equipment. You feel anythin’ and I’m throttlin’ that salesman.”

  
Once Sollux had undressed Eridan got up, armed with the cuffs and red rope. Sollux looked at his hands before deciding how he wanted to be cuffed and turned his back on Eridan, catching a glimpse of surprise from Eridan at the trust he had. Sollux wasn’t stupid. He knew Eridan’s warning signs after provoking him so much on the meteor, and as of yet hadn’t seen a hint of them. Eridan latched each cuff on, making sure they were snug but not tight. At once Sollux’s psionics winked out of existence, and even the doomed voices went dim.

  
Eridan started with the rope then, beginning the first loop around Sollux’s chest. Sollux didn’t trust someone standing behind him completely, but all that happened was the occasional kiss along his shoulders and up the back of his neck. As more complicated patterns from the rope came forth the kisses deepened a bit, sharp teeth nipping along Sollux’s skin.

  
Eventually Eridan stepped back, and Sollux clenched his fists a few times as he tested his bonds. Letting everything go remained unnerving, and he yelped a bit as Eridan tugged him back towards the bed by the makeshift rope harness. Eridan had lost his shirt somewhere along the way, bare skin brushing up against Sollux before the psion found himself lying facedown on the mattress. Sollux turned his head to the side, straining to see what was happening, but Eridan stayed just outside his peripheral.

  
The bed creaked with more weight as Eridan came back from rummaging on his various shelves and racks, and Sollux’s ears pinned up against his head as Eridan’s weight pressed up against him. A hand slid to Sollux’s chest, the other moving down and tracing along his hip. Sollux craned his neck, catching a glimpse of Eridan’s delicate gills fluttering along his torso. Sollux had never seen gills up so close before, not even Feferi’s back on the meteor.

  
Eridan interrupted these thoughts as his hand slipped between Sollux’s legs, rubbing something up along his nook and eventually his bulges’ sheath. Sollux let out a soft breath, eyelids lowering as he rocked his hips. His bulges took an interest, stirring and starting to make their way out into the world when Eridan popped whatever tiny object he held right into his sheath.

  
Sollux’s eyes shot open, and he hissed. “What the fuck is that? Shit doesn't go in there.”

  
Eridan snickered, starting to kiss up on Sollux’s neck again. His hum vibrated against Sollux’s skin. “It’s called a sheath plug,” he said, voice lowering in pitch. He grabbed the other rope, starting to tie off some patterns around Sollux’s lower body. “It won’t fall in, an’ even if it did I’d know how to get it out. There’s a knob.” Eridan leaned in again, nobbling along Sollux’s ears. “You won’t be comin’ until I let you, or until you beg.”

  
“Fuck.” Sollux shifted his hips around, testing the sensation. His bulges weren’t happy, but as time went on enough pleasure built to get his nook dripping a little. He’d just barely grown accustomed to it when Eridan reached down again, and Sollux’s hips jerked forward as a subtle vibration started within his sheath. “Oh fuck.” He took a shuddering breath, squirming. “Good luck getting me to beg. This is- Mmmf. Easy.”

  
Eridan laughed before leaning in, starting to kiss and bite and suck at every part of skin he could reach. Sollux whined, thin and weedy, as Eridan pulled back to start tying his legs enough that he couldn’t move. “Easy, you say?” He rolled Sollux onto his back, and his fins were flared and a vibrant violet. Sollux glanced down to the next object Eridan held, which seemed to be another sort of vibrator. Eridan kissed Sollux’s stomach as he slid the fair-sized vibrator up between Sollux’s nooklips, making sure it stayed in place due to the ropes.

  
Sollux’s eyes went out of focus for a few moments, any remaining tense muscles going limp. “Fuck yeah,” he said, but the shakiness of his voice said otherwise. “Easy as shit.”

  
Eridan’s pupils dilated, and he looked down at Sollux’s tied form. “A challenge!” he said, licking his lips. “I love challenges.” He crawled over Sollux again, hovering up over him before coming down just enough to resume lathering Sollux’s neck in kisses and bites. No side of his neck received more attention than the other, and the perfect symmetry had Sollux moaning louder than he’d like to admit. “If you need anything else, just ask,” Eridan said, breath hot against Sollux’s ear.

  
Sollux scrambled to come up with something, anything. Already he was coming apart, caught between humiliation and desperate want. “Anything,” he said, gasping for air. “Horns. I don’t care-- Do anything to them.” He tucked his face into Eridan’s neck, and started mouthing at the gills he found there.

  
Eridan gasped, arching against Sollux a bit and letting his gills get the attention for a few moments before pulling away. “I coul’ be amenable to that,” he said,but caught Sollux’s chin in his hand. “But I would truly appreciate a please, sir.” He let go of Sollux’s chin, tugging the psion up onto his knees by the ropes.

  
Sollux’s mouth went dry, and he bared his teeth at Eridan’s demand. The aggression lasted approximately two seconds before shuddered, hips rocking to try and get more friction from the pair of vibrators. “I,” he said, voice a harsh croak. He moistened his lips with his tongue, and Eridan’s eyes followed the motion. “Sir, please,” he finally managed. “I need it.”

  
No violet remained in Eridan’s eyes, irises by this point swallowed up by his pupils like a deep-sea predator. His expression flickered, revealing his desperate want, before he schooled his face back into focus. He kissed Sollux, on the lips this time, tongue sliding over his bottom lip. “Good boy,” he murmured.

  
Eridan grabbed another rope, yellow this time, tying a knot around Sollux’s furthest right horn. His fingers kneaded into the hornbeds, the only sensitive part of them, which had Sollux squirming on his knees. By this point, Sollux’s thighs were starting to stain yellow with slurry. While the rope themselves didn’t do much for his horns, the act itself was enough to have Sollux’s breath going raspy again. Sollux tried to turn his head to his shoulder to wipe drool starting to dribble down his chin, but Eridan caught his face and forced him to live with it. Sollux’s hands twitched in their bonds as Eridan leaned in, licking up and along the length of Sollux’s horn in a dangerous route to their sharp ends.

  
“Watch it,” Sollux said, eyes crossing. He squirmed again, trying to force Eridan’s mouth to the hornbeds. “You aren’t doing shit, moron.”

  
Eridan finished tying Sollux’s horns, sitting back on his heels on the bed. “Afraid to break it to you, Sol,” Eridan said, folding his arms as he smirked. “You’re misbehavin’ somethin’ fierce.”

  
Sollux groaned. “Oh, come on, that was a minor fucking offense and you know it. That wasn’t misbehaving, it was a warning.”

  
Eridan’s eyes narrowed, and he ran a hand up Sollux’s thigh up towards his nook. After some fidgeting, the vibrator at his nook jumped up to the next highest setting. Sollux outright trilled then, almost missing Eridan’s words. “Insultin’ me and mouthin’ off ain’t minor offenses.” He reached to the side, grabbing a paddle that had Sollux’s eyes widening. “This seem like a fair punishment?”

  
Sollux’s hips rocked up against the air, biting back a wail of pleasure as the motion accentuating the stronger vibrations at his nook. “Mmmng. Yes. That’s perfect.”

  
Eridan nodded, head bobbing with enthusiasm as he tugged Sollux forward until the psion was draped across his lap. Out of spite, Sollux started grinding up against his jeans. “Do you know why you’re being punished?” Eridan rubbed his hand along Sollux’s ass, occasionally teasing at his nook.

  
“Because you can’t handle a little sass, _sir_ ,” Sollux said, and he spat the title with as much sarcasm as he could muster. “Quit being indecisive.”

  
Eridan’s hand stopped stroking at Sollux’s skin. “Funny,” he said. “You seem to fail to realize I don’t gotta give you what you want.” He dragged his nails down Sollux’s spine, just light enough to send tingles up along it. “You don’t get anything that I don’t hand to you. You’re powerless. _I_ snuffed out your powers, _I_ bound you, I can take _everything away_.”

  
Sollux whimpered, and his muscles tensed a bit as he prepared for the first strike of the paddle. It never came, and instead Eridan slid out from under him and retreated to a chair on the other side of the room. Sollux blinked, twisting as best he could to look at Eridan. “What- Hey, no, what the fuck? You can’t just leave me here.” His hands twisted around in the cuffs and ropes but nothing budge. “Don’t you dare leave me alone when you did this to me.”

  
Eridan inspected his nails, folding a leg to rest upon his knee. “Don’t underestimate me, Sol. I haven’t even taken off my pants yet.”

  
Sollux growled in frustration, but Eridan didn’t make a single move towards him. Sollux needed relief and so started just straight up grinding against the bed, but with his legs and arms bound he just flopped around like a fish. A horny, horny fish.

  
Five minutes passed, and Sollux’s grinding started to wear down. He only rocked his hips a little, chest heaving as he tried to catch up on air. His bulges felt leaden within his sheath, swollen with slurry. Ten minutes, and his hips had gone still.  
Eventually he only chirped, trilling to try and convince Eridan back to him as his eyes glazed over. The world swam around Sollux, and he drooled himself a lake into the mattress. Eridan hadn’t touched him in so long and yet all Sollux could think about was the seadweller, his cool hands and mouth the only thing in the world he wanted. He spotted movement and Sollux crooned, low and loud, as Eridan knelt by the side of the bed. He pressed his face into Sollux’s neck, breathing in the pailing pheromones there. “Look at me,” he said, moving more in front of Sollux’s face. “You good?”

  
Sollux nodded, shaky and unsteady as he let out a few garbled sounds before managing something close to sentient speech. “Yeah.”

  
Eridan relaxed, and stroked at Sollux’s cheek. “You goin’ to behave and accept your punishment, Sol?”

  
“Yes.”

  
“Yes...?”

  
“Yes, _sir_ ,” Sollux said, whimpering a bit. That seemed to stroke Eridan’s ego with how his fins perked up. At this point Sollux was desperate to please, and so kept going. “Please, I’ve been bad. I need it.” The words were humiliating and cheesy in Sollux’s head, but Eridan practically threw himself back onto the bed. Again, Sollux found himself bent over Eridan’s lap. “Come on, come _on_ ,” Sollux said, wriggling.

  
“Should I go back to the chair?” Eridan asked, picking up the paddle again and doing nothing. “You’re still bein’ sassy.”

  
“No. No, no no no.” Sollux whined, almost sobbing as his voice shook with need. “I’m sorry, don’t leave again.” He didn’t want to go a single minute more without Eridan’s touch.

  
Eridan applied some pressure with the paddle to Sollux’s backside, a silent promise of what was to come. “That’s better. And how many swats do you think you deserve?”

  
Sollux’s head lolled to the side a bit, entire body shaking with anticipation. “Mmm. Two’s… Not enough. Wanna have a two in there.”

  
“Twelve?”

  
“Yeah, yeah, twelve,” Sollux said, wiping his face against the mattress. All the drool left him sticky and embarrassed.

  
“Let me know if I’m hittin’ too hard or not enough,” Eridan said. “I don’t know your limits yet. Can you do this?”

  
“Got it.”

  
“Don’t miscount,” Eridan said, and began.

  
The first swat came down fast, and Sollux gasped. The brief spike of pain sent a matching tremor of arousal through his body like an electric current. “One,” he said, eyes wide. “Harder.”

  
Eridan took in a breath, legs shifting underneath Sollux. “Of course,” he said, voice soft. “Anythin’ you want.”

  
The entire world had been reduced to Eridan, his hands, and the paddle, and Sollux let out a soft sob as Eridan touched the paddle’s handiwork. He buried his face in the mattress to muffle himself to no avail, especially when the paddle hit him again. The blow hit harder than he expected, but he should have expected that with highblood strength. “Fuck!” Sollux shook his head, trying to clear it. “Oh, _fuck_ , fuck me.”

  
Eridan purred up above him, kneading the sore flesh. “Fuck is not a number, Sol,” he said. “And here I thought you’d be capable of countin’ your favorite number. Do we have to start again?”

  
Sollux moaned. “Fuuuuck.” He closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths to try and steady himself. He had to focus, a task that mounted in difficulty with every second. Every miniscule touch tortured him. “Two.”

  
“You’ll get it eventually,” Eridan said. “But you’re bein’ cute, so I’ll let it slide. We’ll have to train you better, though.”

  
The swats after that point hovered between the first two in intensity, a welcome relief. Sollux yelped and trilled with each one, attempts to count becoming more and more garbled. Eridan’s voice kept him grounded, with constant checks to make sure he was okay.

  
After the twelfth strike Eridan put the paddle aside, carefully running his hand over Sollux’s sore backside as he purred again. “You did so good,” he said. “I’m proud.”

  
“Nnfnflglgfff.” Sollux’s head spun too much to focus.

  
“What do you want now?”

  
Sollux stared at the wall for a few moments, gathering himself before raising his head a bit. “You smell nice,” he said. “Wanna... mmgonna...eat you out or whatever.”

  
Eridan swallowed, the sound audible even over the pounding of Sollux’s bloodpusher. “That can be arranged.” Despite his even tone of voice, Eridan moved fast as he scrambled to free himself from his pants. He tossed a pillow down onto the floor before help Sollux to kneel on top of it, making sure he had a good cushion. The seadweller practically sobbed as his bulge unsheathed, coiling and smearing violet slurry up along his stomach as Eridan spread his legs.

  
Sollux’s eyes remained fixed on the swaying bulge, hypnotized before he remembered the task at hand. He leaned in, tongue getting busy at Eridan’s nook. Thankfully, Eridan reached down and pinned his bulge back so it didn’t try going up Sollux’s nose. Sollux threw himself into eating Eridan out, moaning into his nook and hands twisting out of an empty need to hold Eridan’s legs apart or even finger himself. The bonds held true.

  
“S-Sol,” Eridan gasped, shuddering as Sollux made a particularly lewd slurping noise. “Don’ stay down there too long you-”

  
Sollux didn’t listen, growling into Eridan’s nook. He buried his face still more firmly between Eridan’s legs, and whenever he needed to breathe he licked underneath Eridan’s bulge. Eridan’s voice twisted into soft, sonorous melodies of trills and croons, along with the occasional seadweller click. “God, is your tongue _forked_?”

  
Sollux snickered, providing no answer, and thrust said forked tongue back into Eridan’s nook. Eventually Eridan reached down, pulling Sollux back up into the bed. “You’re gonna drown,” he said, panting as he stroked some hair out of Sollux’s sweaty face. “I haven’ even gotten to the main course yet.” He laid Sollux back onto the bed, untying some of the blue ropes around Sollux’s legs so he could spread them apart. He plucked the nook vibrator away, which had Sollux whimpering, before sliding down. “My turn.”

  
Sollux tipped his head back, eyes rolling back into his skull as Eridan started eating out his nook in turn. Despite not being touched anymore, Eridan moaned and hummed into the folds of Sollux’s nook. He had much more focus than Sollux had, pressing every single one of Sollux’s buttons. Sollux’s world exploded into lights, and all he cared about was singing his wordless praises to Eridan. His back arched, and the sheath blocker kept buzzing away at his poor bulges. “I can’t,” he said, but Eridan did not relent. “I can’t, you’re too much I- Fuck me, please, I need your bulge sir, _please_.” He didn’t care that he was babbling. He’d do anything to relieve this torture. “Fuck me, break me, do it, please.”

  
Eridan stayed down a minute longer before raising his head, lips smeared yellow. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before shuffling to line himself up. “Fuck, okay,” he said. “I’ve got you, relax.”

  
Sollux arched his back again, trilling as Eridan’s cool bulge finally slid into his nook. He gave up on holding himself together, not even focusing on the world around him. The world didn’t exist anymore. His world was Eridan, and his bulge curling up against the walls of his nook. He had no sentience after a while, left only with an iron focus on rocking his hips and encouraging Eridan’s bulge deeper inside him.

  
Eridan’s bulge started to stiffen, which normally would have caused Sollux to scramble for a pail. As it was he wrapped his legs around Eridan’s waist, keeping the seadweller close. Eridan bit and sucked at his neck, occasionally gasping Sollux’s name in a reverent mantra as his hips rocked back Sollux’s own in a rough counter-rhythm. Sollux moaned as Eridan’s bulge brushed up against his shameglobes, a near-constant at this point, before the bulge within him thrashed one last time.  
Sollux whimpered, jaw slack in a silent gape as his seedflap rippled and sucked the slurry Eridan released into him. After a point he did cry out, face twisting a bit with the uncomfortable stretch as tears streaked down his cheeks. He felt so good. He couldn’t imagine not feeling this way, and his bulges could fall off inside his own sheath at this point and he wouldn’t care.

  
Eridan at once stroked his cheeks with his thumb, wiping away the tears. He didn’t say anything, instead kissing Sollux’s forehead. He reached down, under the bed, stepping off and sliding Sollux forward so that his legs hung down off the platform over a pail. Sollux didn’t even react, still gasping and on edge with the inability to properly orgasm himself. He shivered and stared at the ceiling, world spinning around him as he felt cool hands at his sheath ease out the blocker. Sollux’s bulges didn’t so much unsheath as just fall out of him, already stiff and thick with slurry.

  
Eridan grabbed at Sollux’s hip, hold gentle but firm as his other hand pressed two fingers into Sollux’s nook. Sollux’s eyelids fluttered closed as Eridan pressed into him, stretching him apart with his fingers. “Come for me,” Eridan said, and the possessive growl finished the job.

  
Sollux’s hips jerked once as his bulges released their own slurry, and after some coaxing from Eridan’s fingers his seedflap opened once again and let Eridan’s slurry join his in the pail. Sollux didn’t make much of a sound as he finally orgasmed, going limp instead with his face awash with bliss.

  
He heard Eridan say something to the side but don’t quite understand, and couldn’t form any words himself. He felt cool hands at his thighs and his nook, but paid no attention to what was actually happening. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered, and he felt happy with a dim euphoria.

 

* * *

 

  
Eventually he came back to himself, and he blinked as his fingers curled around a fluffy blanket wrapping him in a cocoon. At once he felt a straw at his lips and he drank the offered gatorade, puzzled, before looking up.

  
Eridan sagged as he saw Sollux moving around and looking up at him with awareness. He cupped Sollux’s cheek with his hand. “Sol,” he said, and his voice was almost guilty. “You okay? How are you doing?”

  
“Okay,” Sollux said, drinking some more of the gatorade when Eridan shoved it at him. He winced, rolling his shoulders. “My ass hurts. And my arms. Ow. A good ow,” he added, when Eridan’s fins flicked.

  
Eridan ran his fingers through Sollux’s hair. “You ran straight into subspace like it was your fuckin’ job, Sol, you freaked me out a bit,” he said. “You sure it was all good? I don’t think you coulda managed a safeword at the last bit there.”

  
Sollux nodded, yawning. He hissed as the straw jabbed at his cheek again, but obliged and finished off the glass. “Hey, shut the fuck up, I’m fine. I’m more than fine and this is the first time I’ve felt good in perigees. Months? Fuck this planet.”

  
Eridan managed a laugh, but only relaxed when Sollux reached a hand up out of the blanket to pat his cheek. This whole situation seemed oddly pale, but not a single pheromone made its way to the surface. “Sorry. I get clingy with new people,” he said, shuffling. “It’s stupid.”

  
Sollux huffed, shuffling so he could tuck himself into Eridan’s bare chest. The seadweller was wearing pants again, sweatpants this time that stayed soft and comforting. “You’re not stupid,” he said, kissing at Eridan’s jaw.

  
“Yeah but-” Eridan grumbled, tipping his head back. “You weren’t even screamin’ or beggin’ or anythin’ like that. That was pretty tame, and I thought I broke you for a bit with too much.”

  
Sollux’s ears flicked a bit. “Tame? ED, come on. Admit you did good or I’ll fuckin throw you out a window.”

  
Eridan snorted. “You couldn’t fight a baby meowbeast,” he said, but he squeezed Sollux’s shoulders. He reached to the blanket when Sollux started shivering, flicking a switch that had the blanket warming up. “You want to stay over?” His voice sounded almost small.

  
Sollux buried himself in the blanket, purring deep in his chest as he wrapped himself in the warmth. “If you make me leave I’m going to break down in the street. You got anything to eat?” Despite his question his eyelids were already drooping again. He felt woozy and cold, and Eridan’s hand that started stroking at his cheek was getting him drowsy. “Mmmmgonna nap.”

  
Eridan kissed the top of his head. “I’ll make cocoa and wake you up when it’s done.”

  
Sollux nodded, already slipping away again as Eridan moved him to be horizontal on the couch, on his stomach to take pressure of his sore backside. The voices of the doomed still rattled around his ears, but distant now and easier to bear. Sleep came easy, and Eridan let him sleep to morning in his bed.


	2. Chains and Whips Excite the Fish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old wounds start to heal, and Sollux decides that it's about time he took charge.

For the first time in years, Sollux slept through the night and into the day. No matter how hard he tried, Sollux had never shaken the Alternian instinct to hide from the sun and sleep through the day. Normal pailing could relax him a little, but last night’s adventure knocked him out like nothing else managed to. Sunlight crept across his eyes, rousing him from his slumber with slow steadiness until he realized something important.

Sollux shot upright, disoriented and sore as he looked around the unfamiliar room. Eridan had brought his clothes into the bedroom, draping them over a desk chair, but the seadweller himself seemed to already have gotten up. Sollux fell out of bed, swearing at his sore muscles and lower half, but ignored it as he fumbled in his jeans for his phone. He groaned as he saw the time, and the absurd amount of missed calls and texts from Karkat.

Eridan looked up from the kitchen as Sollux stumbled from the room, a bagel halfway to his mouth. “Good mornin’ to you too,” he said, as Sollux didn’t even acknowledge him, instead hobbling as he tried to put on his shoes without untying them. “You’re in a hurry.” His fins drooped in a way that almost looked disappointed if Sollux didn’t know any better.

“I told KK I’d be back two hours ago,” Sollux said, kicking the toe of his shoes on the ground to make sure they were secure. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I didn’t know you had to go anywhere,” Eridan said, scowling. “It ain’t my fault.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Sollux said, checking his phone again. Karkat should have left for work an hour ago, a job he’d taken so he didn’t go insane with his technical god status. “Thanks for last night.”

Eridan opened his mouth, but didn’t have time to say anything more as Sollux bolted from the apartment. The drive back to his own place didn’t take long, and Sollux tried to calm himself down. Okay. He needed to do something to appease Karkat, for sure. After finding Sollux on a very bad LSD trip, Karkat had gone batshit whenever Sollux had gone out of sight for an hour. It had taken a while to earn his trust back, and Sollux’s gut clenched at the thought of letting him down again. Maybe he’d do the dishes or something. Or suggest a shitty movie night. Honestly, Sollux just wanted to go back to bed. He still felt relaxed and sleepy, and he walked bowlegged to try and alleviate the pain in his entire lower half.

Sollux fumbled with the keys to the apartment, but to his surprise found the place still unlocked. He blinked, sniffing as the smell of breakfast food wafted out to him. He stared as he met Karkat’s eyes, who definitely hadn’t gone to work and instead had created an almost literal mountain of pancakes and sausages. Sollux’s mouth watered despite himself, and he swallowed hard as Karkat charged for him with his red eyes blazing. 

“ _ Sollux _ .” Sollux grimaced, gritting his teeth as Karkat came to a stop in front of him. Karkat raised his hands up, squishing Sollux’s cheeks in a gesture that may have held moiraillistic kindness if not for the tightness of his grip. “Where the fucking hell have you  _ been _ ? You told me  _ nine  _ and it’s almost fucking noon.”

“Uh,” Sollux said, not helping his case. “Out. I told you-- I know I told you nine, but I just slept in.” He raised his hands, patting at Karkat’s face right back to try and settle him down. “I’m fine.”

He freed himself from Karkat’s hold, moving to the counter to try and snag a pancake. Karkat let out a distressed trill, grabbing at his elbow and strong-arming Sollux down into a kitchen chair. Karkat leaned in, looking him over. Sollux rubbed at his neck, which only drew Karkat’s eyes to the very aggressive bites Eridan had left behind. “You’re slurring,” Karkat said, eyebrows furrowed.

“I’m lisping.”

Karkat scrubbed at his eyes, “Did you take any of your shitty fucking drugs?” He dropped his hand. “ _ Fuck,  _ did you get roofied? Do I need to report a sexual assault?”

“KK-” 

Karkat remained undeterred, rambling on. “You look like  _ shit  _ and you’re scaring me because holy fuck, I let you go for two seconds and you’re already acting shifty and won’t meet my eyes and you’re  _ late _ .” Karkat jabbed a finger in Sollux’s face. “You’re later than you’ve ever been and as your fucking moirail I am shitting my pants like some godforsaken pan-rotted wiggler in distress.”

Sollux folded his arms. “I didn’t take anything,” he said. “I didn’t get roofied either. I met up with someone and we had some wild pailing and that’s the fucking end of it. I didn’t know I needed to hold your hand all the way because you can’t fucking trust me anymore.”

Sollux regretted his attempt at banter as he saw the way hurt flickered over Karkat’s face. Karkat folded his arms right back, lip twisting as he turned on his heel to put his back to Sollux. “Fuck you. Fine, whatever. I hope you had fucking fun.” Sollux reached out to Karkat, but Karkat avoided his hand as he went to the kitchen counter. “Thanks for letting me wonder if I’d get the fucking cops asking me to identify your body in some crackhouse and blowing me the fuck off as if I’m  _ incapable of functioning.  _ I should've just gone to work.”

Sollux slumped in his chair a bit, shoulders curling in on themselves as Karkat scooped up the food he’d made and slammed them on the kitchen table without looking at him. He didn’t speak again, instead moving to grab his coat and keys. Sollux panicked, almost running after Karkat and grabbing at his coat. “KK, wait.” Karkat stopped upon being grabbed, but didn’t turn to face him. “I didn’t meant that,” Sollux continue, swallowing hard. “Shit, I didn’t realize how worried you actually were.”

Karkat’s hands clenched on his coat so hard his knuckles went white, before dropping his hold so he could scrub at his face. “Fuck off.” He cleared his throat, ears tipped downwards and pinned back in a defensive posture. He still wouldn’t look at Sollux. “That not using your pan thing you have going on for you? You think I’m not concerned about that?” 

Sollux’s hands twisted on the coat still clutched in his own hands. “I’m sorry,” he said, but even the rare apology didn’t appease his moirail. Instead Karkat started pacing, hands gripped behind his back as he dug his nails into his own wrist.

“I will never banter when it comes to your fucking safety,” Karkat said. He swallowed hard. “If you died  _ again  _ and I did nothing to stop it-- I would die, Sollux, that would be the fucking end of me.”

Sollux reached out, catching Karkat midpace with a pap. “KK, come on. I’ve died enough that I’m not going to let some human or another troll or even some drugs off me that easy. Don’t worry about me.”

Karkat only started relaxing after the third pap, letting out a ragged breath. “You worry me anyway,” he said, voice low. “I want to help you but you never want to be helped. For fuck’s sake, Sollux, you’re so fucking intelligent and skilled and you have so much going for you. And yet you just waste everything looking for a cheap thrill and I  _ worry  _ because at one point it’s going to kill you and I’ll have to fucking live with the knowledge that I was fucking useless.”

Karkat pressed his face into Sollux’s chest, and Sollux dropped the coat so he could stroke a hand over his hair. “You’re not useless, KK,” Sollux said. He bit his lip. “I’ve just been trying to distract myself. I’m looking for a hobby like you told me to, and I’m sorry it’s not moving so fast. Not everything is your responsibility.” He pressed a pale kiss to Karkat’s horn, trying to summon up a purr. “You made me breakfast, though? I’m touched.”

Karkat finally started relaxing when the purr came, but not by much. “I cook when stressed,” he said. “And you fucking love breakfast food. I thought it might fucking help to like, hell, I don’t know. Psychically call you back home or something.” He pulled away then, scrubbing at his eyes again to hide the fact he’d started crying. “Go eat.”

Sollux grabbed onto Karkat’s wrist, tugging him back to the table. “I’m not eating until you hate me less. I don’t even know why you bother with me, KK, I’m basically the worst.”

“I don’t hate you,” Karkat said, voice flat. Sollux flinched at how disappointed he sounded. “I really, genuinely don’t. You’re too fucking pathetic for that shit, although sometimes I’d like to break you down to make you better and it gets pitcher than I would fucking like.”

Sollux grabbed a plate then, scooping some pancakes onto it. “I think you do hate me sometimes,” he said. He hoped Karkat didn’t catch on to how scared he sounded. He took a breath. “You better eat too. You’re not the only one worried about their moirail here.”

“I’m not the one that’s more bone than troll,” Karkat said, branding his fork. He took a piece of sausage, tearing into it and swallowing it almost whole. “Don’t try to brush this shit off on your ‘psionic metabolism’ or some other bullshit, either.”

Sollux shoved around a piece of pancake on his plate. “Calm down. I’m eating now. Feel free to dump some orange juice over my head or some shit if I try and get up from the table.”

Karkat grunted, and after that they ate for a few minutes in silence. “So are you going to do anything today, or are you going to hole up in your room and ignore me,” he said finally.

Sollux swallowed his current mouthful of food before reaching out and papping Karkat square on the cheek. “I’m planning on getting you on a pile all day and watching some shitty romcom,” he said. “If you took the day off, it’s been a while since we’ve done moirail shit.”

Karkat actually perked up like that, his disappointed expression falling away by a fraction. “About time,” he said. He devoured another sausage link. “If I’m not papped so hard I forget my own name then I’m kicking your ass.”

* * *

 

Sollux kept meeting up with Eridan over the next few weeks, which helped keep his nose clean. Every time he felt an awful tug at his pan, either by the desperate pleas of the doomed or something he’d deny as addiction, he called up Eridan and arranged a meeting. Karkat started getting suspicious with how often Sollux returned limping or complaining about his back, but Sollux assuaged his concerns with regular shooshpaps. Their shaky quadrant, never quite repaired after Sollux’s trip, started to heal itself now that Sollux had an outlet for his emotions and bipolar mania that kept him up for days on end.

Sollux kept subbing with Eridan, not yet confident he knew how everything worked. If Eridan seemed disappointed he didn’t say, letting various hints about his own wants and weaknesses slip which Sollux filed away. He couldn’t jump into domming without preparation. Too much aggression and Eridan wouldn’t ask him back. Not enough, and no doubt the seadweller would get bored. He needed a delicate balance.

One Friday night saw them meeting up again, and Eridan caught Sollux by the wrist the moment he opened the door. “I’ve got a few different ideas for tonight,” he said, tugging Sollux along. He had a few different bottles on the counter, probably the ingredients for his usual White Russian that he drank while waiting for Sollux. “You’re early, but I still-”

Sollux interrupted Eridan by grabbing onto Eridan’s wrist in turn, shifting the grip so he could twist the seadweller’s arm up towards his shoulderblades. Eridan yelped, skittering up onto his tiptoes to try and alleviate the pressure as his fins flared out in surprise. “Change your plans,” Sollux said, lowering his voice in the way that Eridan had done so many times before. He let his psionics dance over Eridan’s skin, helping to keep his grip even if Eridan retaliated with highblood strength.

“Holy shit,” Eridan said, shivering as a flush built up in his cheeks. “Am I to take that as bein’ like you wantin’ to switch?”

Sollux couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face, one fang catching on the edge of his lip. “Well, yeah. It’d be rude not to after this was the whole reason we met up in the first place.” He leaned in, and Eridan winced as Sollux forced his arm up to its limit. “You’d love to be blind and begging for me this time, wouldn’t you?”

Eridan swallowed. “Now beggin’, Captor, you’ll have to work for.” Sollux released Eridan, letting him scamper off to the scene room with more than a little bounce to his step. “C’mon, safeword’s Orphaner.”

Sollux snickered. “You better remember it,” he said, and followed. Sollux waited only a second after the door closed behind him before flicking his wrist, psionics at play again and bearing down on Eridan. “On your knees.”

Eridan stumbled, trying to keep his footing for a few seconds before succumbing to the psionic pressure. He landed hard on his knees, already baring his sharp teeth at Sollux. The expression almost convinced Sollux until he saw how Eridan bit at his lip to keep himself together. “You can’t keep me down here without cuffs,” he said, gloating. “You lose concentration and it’s over.”

Sollux snorted, keeping a hand out to maintain his psionic hold as he headed for the shelves of toys and equipment. “I don’t need cuffs to make you mine,” he said, running his hands over a few different blindfolds. He turned, just long enough to manipulate his psionics with his other hand, two fingers up in a motion that had Eridan gasping as psionics buzzed at and inside his nook. “You should stop being so sassy.”

Eridan snickered at him as Sollux came over with a blindfold, a silky violet one with gold trim. “Say that word again with those teeth.”

Sollux grabbed onto one of Eridan’s horns, bending his head back to the slightest point of discomfort. Eridan winced, but his fins were still flushed with arousal. “Big words from someone that could come twice as much without me even touching you.” He directed his psionics to Eridan’s nook again as he tied the blindfold over Eridan’s eyes. Eridan complicated the process by squirming, knees pressed together as he tried to stifle himself. “Quit squirming. You’re going to ruin your clothes.” He circled Eridan, trying to keep his footsteps light so Eridan couldn’t place him.

Eridan took a breath, fins fluttering as he tried to figure out where Sollux stood when he went silent. “I can barely feel anythin’, try again,” he said.

Sollux rolled his eyes, pulling Eridan up to his feet. Eridan didn’t resist at all as Sollux stripped him down, almost tripping with his enthusiasm at stepping out of his pants. Once Sollux tossed Eridan’s clothes off to the side he cast a glance over to the equipment on the walls, eyes resting on a spreader bar. He shook his head, looking back to Eridan. He didn’t need help. He could take Eridan with his psionics alone, something he needed to prove he could do after Eridan had challenged his ability earlier. 

So he pushed, half with his psionics and half without, pinning Eridan up against a wall. With one hand he directed his psionics to pin Eridan’s hands above his head, and with the other to spread his legs apart. “You feeling anything yet, or are you still bored?”

Eridan twisted his hands around in the psionic grip, trying to move with no success. Sollux felt a faint pressure at his temples at the effort it took to contain him, but ignored that for now. “No,” Eridan said, sneering. “Don’t feel- oooohhhhh  _ god. _ ” Eridan yelped as Sollux pressed a palm to his bare nook and then slid two fingers inside, limbs quaking as psionics again shot up his nook with electric stimulation.

“Run that by me again?” Sollux curled his fingers, making sure Eridan knew that he had filed his nails just enough to teeter on the edge of dangerous. Eridan’s breathing hitched at that, knees buckling for a moment before the psionics caught him up again.

“Sol, please, c’mon,” Eridan said, and even his gills got in on the party with how they flared and fluttered along his neck and torso.

Sollux recalled something he’d read on Eridan’s profile, back when they’d first started interacting. Discomfort prickled at his pan, but he pushed the thought away as he straightened his back. He could do this right. He reached to Eridan’s neck, wrapping thin fingers around Eridan’s throat and pressing until Eridan started gasping for air he couldn’t get. “Quit fucking up, bastard. You’re not in control here.”

Eridan kept gasping, but rather than tucking his chin to minimize Sollux’s grip on his airways he only tipped his head back. Sollux waited until Eridan’s gills flared to their widest, fins starting to wave at the edge of panic, and let go. Eridan coughed and wheezed as his head slumped forward, and Sollux strained to hear anything that resembled the safe word. His hand almost burned after what he’d done, a thrill doing flips up his gut and up his spine at the power he’d held, and any residual shame had left the building.

No safeword came, so Sollux carried on before anything resembling regret could catch up. Since Eridan couldn’t see him anyway Sollux reached down his own pants, checking on his own arousal. His lip twisted at how wet he’d gotten already, and he pulled his hand away to see how much yellow slurry stained his skin. He almost wiped his hand off before looking back to Eridan, whose bulge by this point had unsheathed.

Sollux stepped forward, taking advantage of Eridan’s gasping mouth to slip slurry-smeared fingers past his lips. Eridan turned his head at first, rejecting the intrusion with a disgusted expression, before his tongue flickered over the genetic material on Sollux’s fingers. Sollux smirked as Eridan started sucking his fingers clean, trilling once before breathing hard through his nose. He couldn’t help how his nook clenched on nothing, which he hadn’t expected with someone sucking on his fingers. “I don’t want a speck of color on me,” he said, his other hand tracing along Eridan’s throat. Eridan growled a bit, nipping at Sollux’s finger.

Sollux pulled his fingers away, which of course were clean if a little damp. Eridan tried closing his legs again, but in response Sollux forced his legs apart a little further. “You can’t make me do anythin’,” Eridan said, but the way his back arched towards Sollux said otherwise.

Sollux raised an eyebrow, moving to the rack of whips and crops. Erdian shivered each time Sollux tested one, letting it whistle through the air. Sollux ended up choosing a simple leather riding crop, one small and fast and without too much welt potential. He tipped up Eridan’s chin with the end of the crop. “No, I can’t. But I can break you until you’ll bend backwards for a bit of relief.” He took off his shirt, the rustling sound piquing Eridan’s interest if the way his fins perked were any indication.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Eridan said. He whimpered as Sollux trailed the crop right over his gills, genuine fear flashing over the parts of his face not covered by the blindfold. If anything, it made even more slurry trail down his thigh from his nook. He stumbled as Sollux jerked him forward in his psionic grip, only just able to keep his feet as Sollux took him to the bed and bent him over it.

Considering how much Eridan kept mouthing off, Sollux made one last pit-stop as the shelves of toys. He grabbed a gag, a ring so Eridan could still express his need for the scene to end if he wanted. He forced the gag into Eridan’s mouth, and he heard a slick noise between the seadweller’s legs. A quick glance down confirmed that Eridan’s bulge had thrust finally into his own nook. Clearly this whole situation proved too arousing for sentient thought if Eridan was desperate enough to fuck himself.

Sollux struck when Eridan started to moan, crop hitting square between the shoulderblades. Eridan’s back arched inwards and he let out a genuine squeal around the gag forcing his mouth open. “Control yourself,” Sollux said, smoothing a hand over the spot he’d hit Eridan. The skin had gone a faint violet, but not yet viciously flushed. He hadn’t hit too hard. He reached out to Eridan’s bulge then, stroking a finger over what little of the bulge remained outside. Eridan let out a few garbled curses, limbs jerking but not yet released from their psionic prison. 

Sollux felt more pressure in his nose, and sniffed back the blood starting to gather within his nostrils. He could handle using psionic cuffs a bit longer. Besides, the pride that he’d managed to keep an entire highblood writhing and wanting with nothing but his mental abilities would fuel him for weeks to come. Coming down from this high too early would destroy him. He whipped out with the crop again, this time across Eridan’s thighs. After a few more hits Eridan sobbed, letting out something close to words. “Mmn- ‘oooryy-  _ ‘ease, ‘ir _ .”

Sollux snorted as he saw how Eridan’s hips ground up against the bed, deciding that was good enough to move forward. He left Eridan belly-down on the bed, reaching and tugging Eridan’s bulge out of his nook. Eridan let out a miserable noise of want, crooning loud and low as he rocked his hips back. Sollux kept his fingers wrapped in a tight ring around the base of Eridan’s bulge, direction his psionics to the toy wall. A pang hit his temple, pain at overstretching his psionics in too many directions, but Sollux pushed away the warning sign again. He needed to keep going. 

He summoned a dildo to his hand after releasing Eridan’s bulge, one that he remembered Eridan mentioning offhand that took the place of almost too much to handle. Sollux made a face despite himself as he turned the dildo over in his hand. Surely Eridan couldn’t fit all of this inside him. He looked back however, and the way Eridan’s nook dripped convinced him otherwise. Besides, Eridan had already done the work of stretching himself out for him.

Sollux teased the head of the dildo at the entrance of Eridan’s nook, letting him know full well what lay ahead of him. Eridan stiffened, breathing halting for a moment before he let out a deep exhale to try and relax himself. Eridan mumbled out another butchered apology, a plea for Sollux’s bulges and not just another toy to torment him, but Sollux kept forging ahead. He had to take Eridan to the breaking point and back before enjoying the spoils. 

“Look at you,” he said, starting to push the dildo inside Eridan. The toy went in easy, almost laughably so if Sollux didn’t feel heat pooling in his gut over how much Eridan could fit inside him. “I’m not even touching you and you’re a fucking mess.” Eridan arched his back, gasping loud as another inch of the dildo slid into him. “You’re not worthy of me,” Sollux continued, and his low, yellow blood sang as he said this to the helpless seadweller. “You’re a fucking disgrace that went down without a fight.”

Eridan growled at him then, almost dangerous until a particular thrust of the dildo had him yelping and sighing in pleasure again. If anything the talk had him writhing more, each twitch and spasm of his limbs tugging at Sollux’s psionics in a painful rhythm. Eridan couldn’t see it under the blindfold, but Sollux’s nose had started dripping blood from both nostrils.

Anxious to get some proper stimulation himself, Sollux flipped Eridan over. He had to take a moment to drink in the sight of Eridan’s flushed face, half-encrusted with drool with his fins fluttering an aroused dance. Sollux brought the riding crop to his hand again, using it to tip Eridan’s chin back in forced submission. “I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself,” he said, already shuffling up to straddle Eridan’s chest. “How much can you move your tongue with that on?”

Eridan responded by sticking out his tongue as far as it could go, nearly brushing the tip of his chin. Sollux flushed despite himself, glad Eridan couldn’t see his expression. “Then get to it,” he said, adjusting himself to sit with precarious balance on Eridan’s face. “Cleaning slurry off me’s all you’re good for.”

Eridan took to his duties with enthusiasm, sliding his tongue up and into Sollux’s nook without hesitation. Sollux’s bulges, which by this point Sollux had convinced to remain inside by the complicated process of pressing a hand to his own sheath, exploded from their confines. Sollux buried his face in his hand, biting his lip hard to keep from making noise as Eridan hummed and crooned and sent vibrations up his nook. Sollux could tell Eridan was tiring out, and each time he did he used the riding crop to bring alternating strikes down on the seadweller’s hip. He lifted up on occasion, on the pretense of finding a better position, giving Eridan brief gasps of air but never quite enough.

Sollux reached back at one point, fingers brushing up against Eridan’s bulge to check how close he was. Eridan’s bulge could hardly twist anymore, swollen with slurry and flailing out in the open air each time the dildo thrust into Eridan’s nook. Sollux got off of Eridan, leaving the seadweller to trill an upset song of loss and longing as his hips rocked up against nothing. “Don’t you dare come early,” Sollux said, rummaging under the bed for the pail. A bead of sweat rolled down from Eridan’s temple as he tensed, and Sollux snorted as he realized Eridan really was trying to obey him.

Sollux reached out then, taking one small mercy and removing the gag from Eridan’s mouth. Eridan sputtered a bit and then let out a loud moan as Sollux released soem of his psionic hold, enough that Eridan could actually brace himself up as Sollux forced him into a sitting position  so he could use the pail. Sollux thrust the dildo he had into Eridan one last time, and the seadweller let out a wail which trailed off into clicks and chirps as slurry hit the metal pail. The sound had Sollux shivering, and he had to wrap a hand briefly around his own bulges to keep himself grounded.

Sollux waited a few moments before pulling the toy free of Eridan’s nook, which had Eridan lolling his head back with an expression of bliss painted across what parts of his face Sollux could see. His bulge did not retract however, and Sollux didn’t want to wait around for time to take care of this. Instead he moved to a miniature freezer Eridan had used many times before, pulling out an ice pack. Eridan whimpered as Sollux pressed the ice pack to his bulge for a brief moment, chasing the bulge back to the relative warmth of its sheath, before fixing a sheath blocker in place.

“Oh god,” Eridan choked out, a purr starting to vibrate his entire chest. “Mmmngk- Fuck, I can’t-”

“Just a bit longer,” Sollux said, stroking a thumb across one of Eridan’s gills. Eridan let out a pleased murmur, body pressing up against Sollux’s hand. Sollux had no psionics on Eridan by this point, and he tasted an uncomfortable iron tang in the back of his throat. Sollux coughed once to clear his throat, grabbing Eridan’s legs and hooking them around his waist. “Relax. You’ve earned this.”

From there he kept the sex slow, pinning Eridan’s wrist above his head with own hands as he let his bulges curl up and stretch Eridan’s nook. Eridan’s jaw was slack, a faint smile curling around his lips as Sollux ran faint ripples of psionic energy across his gills with every thrust of his two bulges. Eridan had always reigned supreme at taking both Sollux’s bulges at once, but at this point Sollux wondered if he could fit one more in his nook with how the dildo had stretched him open. Sollux nipped at Eridan’s neck and collarbone, making where he’d been with a surge of possessiveness with each mark. Despite his arousal, he felt a steely calm where Eridan flopped and moaned in a sex-addled stupor.

Finally Sollux could take no more of this, gripping Eridan’s wrists so hard the seadweller whimpered a bit as Sollux filled him with warm slurry. Sollux slumped on top of Eridan, letting out a low growl as Eridan squirmed a bit. He only moved when Eridan started slurring out proper words, a quiet begging. “Sir, please, I’ve been good. Lemme come.” He sounded airy, lost, and Sollux took pity on the poor bastard.

“Alright,” he said, nipping at Eridan’s jaw one last time. A bit of blood from the now enthusiastic psionic nosebleed stayed behind on Eridan’s skin. “You’ve earned it. Sit up.”

Sollux helped Eridan into a sitting position, removing the blindfold as he did so. Eridan’s eyes were only half-open, so out of focus taking off the blindfold probably hadn’t done much to restore his awareness and sight. Sollux grabbed the pail again, taking away the sheath blocker so that Eridan’s bulge could unsheathe again. He started stroking Eridan’s stomach and around his sheath, triggering the muscle response to release the slurry trapped within. “Just let go.”

Eridan’s head flopped against Sollux’s shoulder, and let out a sigh as Sollux used his psionics to stimulate muscles hands could never reach. The relief as he orgasmed for the second time had Eridan shivering, gasping open-mouthed for air before slumping up against Sollux.

Sollux crooned encouragement, rocking Eridan a little as they both caught their breath. He wrapped an arm around Eridan, holding his nose with his free hand as he tried to stem the bleeding. His head pounded out a murderous beat, and he felt annoyed beyond measure. Sure he hadn’t used his psionics with a lot of regularity lately, but having a psionic overload still filled him with more shame than he’d care to admit.

Shame actually seemed to be the only emotion he felt at the moment, and he felt uncertainty creep up on his pan as he glanced at Eridan’s face. He tried to bury his doubts. Eridan hadn’t breathed a word close to the safe word, and had clearly enjoyed himself. He felt the burn from when he’d choked Eridan in his hand again, and Sollux clenched his fist to try and dissipate it. Eridan had liked it, but Sollux still couldn’t chase away the guilt of  _ enjoying  _ having the seadweller’s pain and pleasure and almost his entire life cupped within his hands.

Eridan stirred after a minute or so, nuzzling up against Sollux’s cheek. “Hey,” he said, in a voice clearer than anything he’d uttered the entire time in the scene room.

Sollux took his hand away from his nose, which didn’t seem to want to stop bleeding no matter what he did. “Hey yourself.” He kissed at Eridan’s temple, gathering some of the bed’s blankets around them as Eridan started to shiver. “Did I do okay?”

Eridan stretched, letting out a purr that rivaled Karkat’s overzealous rumblings. “You pretty much served me almos’ every kink I got in a single sittin’ and I can’ think straight. Fuck Sol, you did more than okay.”

Sollux sighed, shoulders relaxing. “I can see why you look worried sometimes after a scene,” he said. “I can see why you like to dom though, holy shit. I actually felt focused for once.”

Eridan snickered, but then paused as he took in Sollux’s nosebleed. “You overworked yourself, didn’ you,” he said. “You look like a fuckin’ horrorshow.” He snorted. “But if I’d seen that, coun’ me intimidated gettin’ fucked by you.”

Sollux wiped at his nose. “It’s nothing,” he said, even as his headache started evolving into a migraine which had him squinting against the dim lights of the room. “I’ve had worse.”

Eridan huffed, but went boneless as Sollux stroked at a fin. “Mmmn. I doubt it, somehow.” He curled more into Sollux’s chest, sighing. “Thanks. For uh. Well. Indulgin’ me in all my shit.” He looked ready to fall asleep, eyes closing.

Sollux jostled Eridan a bit. “Try and walk at least a little bit,” he said. “I’m not strong enough to carry your fat ass to bed, especially not without my psionics.”

Eridan let out an indignant huff, fins puffing out without much threat to them as he stumbled up with his arm over Sollux’s shoulder. “You're jealous of my thighs. Get a gym membership, god,” he said, leaning against Sollux as they headed for the bedroom. “You’re more bone than troll and need some fuckin’ muscle.”

The words needled at Sollux, especially how Karkat often said the same to him. He looked down at himself. He’d always been a beanpole, all angles and sharp bones and shanks for elbows. His psionics needed a higher calorie load or they started eating at his fat stores, and the scant hot pockets he’d eaten probably didn’t do much to sustain him. Sollux shook his head. “I’ve got psionics to do shit for me,” he said. 

“Psionics you jus’ blew out fuckin’ me,” Eridan said, but he sighed with relief as they made it to the bedroom.

“I just have to practice more.” Sollux ducked into the bathroom, grabbing some wipes and towels considering he didn’t think Eridan could stand for a shower right now. “Don’t see why you’re worrying.”

Eridan yawned, spreading his legs just enough so Sollux could swipe away any remnant traces of genetic material there. “Mmm. I gotta worry. Who’s gonna rock my world so hard with you gone?” Sollux paused in the middle of toweling himself off, and Eridan seemed to realize what he’d implied with how his face flushed violet. “Uh. You know what I mean.”

Sollux flopped onto the bed next to Eridan, pulling the covers up over them. “So. I mean, you’re on those forums for hookups. You haven’t found anyone else besides me?” While the thought rubbed him the wrong way for reasons he couldn’t understand, Sollux had resigned himself to the fact that he remained Eridan’s hookup, and Eridan would undoubtedly find more hookups along the way.

Eridan shuffled, reaching out to grab a water bottle from the nightstand. “No,” he said, after chugging half the bottle. “Haven’ bothered.”

Sollux squinted over at him, but shook his head as he took off his glasses to set them on the nightstand closer to him. “I almost feel special, Ampora, thanks.”

Eridan snorted, but said nothing more. After a few minutes Sollux rolled onto his side, reaching out and bundling Eridan into his chest. Eridan held himself with a strange tenseness for a few seconds before relaxing, falling asleep in almost an instant.

Sollux looked down at Eridan’s sleeping face, brows furrowing so hard his migraine had him seeing stars. A pang in his gut had him realizing something as he watched Eridan’s peaceful expression. He’d grown attached to Eridan, this world’s reborn Eridan with newfound maturity fallen six rungs of pride from what Alternia had handed to him on a silver platter. Sollux wondered how long he’d suffered in the dreambubbles before the game had reset him, reliving every fault and every death and every single mistake that led him down the path of destruction Sollux himself had provoked him onto in the end.

Sollux shook himself, closing his eyes. Beside him, Eridan let out a soft murmur and tangled their legs together. He couldn’t think about that. For when they inevitably drifted apart, as flings always did, Sollux knew it would tear him right in two.


	3. Three's a Crowd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sollux has a no good, very bad day (week), and goes to find solace the only way he knows how.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [takes a long drag from a bubble pipe] what's an epilogue

Despite his low expectations for himself, Sollux managed to hold himself together over the months that followed. The situation with Eridan did not sour as he feared, and scenes almost started to feel like the conclusion to a night out rather than the sole reason for going outdoors. Sollux started bringing a console over, and found that not even a tortuous blowjob could ruin Eridan’s headshot rate. Everything seemed to fall into place between the pair of them, and the times that Sollux thought about the drugs he still had stowed away became few and far between.

One day found Sollux in bed, alone, bulges deep in the far between. He’d felt more tired the past few weeks, to the point that eating and hygiene seemed to fade into trivial matters he could ignore. Eventually he got to the point of not wanting to bother getting up at all. Sollux raised an arm, keeping his fingers outstretched to the ceiling until the inevitable moment when his hand flopped back in his face. He’d done this several times in the past hour, the soreness in his arm the only reminder of his place in reality, as being alive.

As with all downswings and depressive episodes, especially for ones as bad as this, the voices of the doomed had arrived in full force inside his pan. They screamed, pleaded, begged, a siren staccato pinning Sollux to the platform by his eardrums. _Smack._ His hand fell back to his face in time to the wrenching of a car’s engine, a blaring horn, the chaotic screams of a sixteen car pileup on the southbound ramp into the city over. _Smack._ An earthquake this time, small enough to only register with a human family of four, their youngest losing her footing on a hiking trail. _Smack._ A mugging gone wrong. _Smack._ The stereotypical, played out argument between matesprits, only this time the knife lands in his chest with a _smack._

Sollux sat up, swaying a little at the sudden change of elevation. His arms hurt. Outside, rain pattered against his respiteblock’s window. A car hydroplanes, skidding into an old carapacian. Sollux swore, cupping his forehead with a hand as he got up, taking a few moments to let any last remnants of vertigo pass. This downswing had gone on long enough. He needed to do something to get the energy to keep going, or he’d starve or suffocate in his built-up layers of grime. Karkat was away, off on a trip to an adjacent kingdom to visit some of the other creators. “Call me if anything happens,” he’d said. “Seriously. I’m trusting you this time.” He’d looked hopeful.

Sollux stumbled to his dresser, pulling open the top drawer with more force than necessary. After some rummaging he pulled out a pair of his least favorite socks, unballing them and letting the little plastic packet within fall into his palm. _I’m trusting you this time._ He stared at the pills, swallowing hard. The need to take them had gnawed at the base of his neck for months now, but he’d managed to abstain until now. He’d had downswings in the time since meeting Eridan, but none so bad as this one.

Sollux held the packet a few seconds longer before dropping it as if burned. The pills scattered into the dresser drawer, rattling around while a few fell onto the floor. He started pacing, flinching as he felt a pill crumble under his heel. What did Karkat even see in him, really? One week with his moirail gone, and he’d spiraled into a miserable fucking blanket burrito scrabbling for pills. He should’ve thrown them away but he’d kept them just in case, just in case something like this happened. Surely it wasn’t bad if he just took one, some ecstasy maybe, something to jump him up and keep him going.

Sollux grabbed for his shoes with his psionics before he could continue on this runaway funicular of thought, snatching up a sweatshirt from the end of his sleeping platform as he passed. He needed to do something, he needed to feel, and only one thing so far seemed consistently helpful with that.

* * *

The walk to Eridan’s apartment took two hours, something that Sollux barely registered even with the pouring rain. Driving there would mean more of a temptation to flip a u-ie and go back home to his pills with his tail between his legs. His legs felt itchy and shaky after the first half hour, the rain soaking through his sweatshirt. By the time Sollux reached Eridan’s place he sneezed at a near constant rate.

Sollux knocked on Eridan’s door, arms folded with his fingers tapping along them. No answer. Sollux knocked again, and heard a distant thump and a curse. The door opened a crack, held closed by the chain. Eridan squinted through the gap. “Who-- Sol?”

Sollux shouldered his way into the apartment the moment Eridan removed the chain, grabbing Eridan by the front of his shirt. “I’m breaking into your apartment,” he said, rasping a bit as he curled his fingers into Eridan’s collar. “Defend yourself.”

Eridan continued looking baffled, blinking and stammering as Sollux pulled him in until their faces were inches apart. “It’s fuckin’ noon on a Tuesday, Captor, the fuck’re y-- Oh.” He looked Sollux over, from his sopping wet hair, sniffly face, all the way down to his week-old jeans. “Yyyyeah. Hey, you came at a weird time, I ain’t ready.” He slung his arms around Sollux, slipping his hands into Sollux’s back pockets and swaying both of them. “Gimme five minutes.”

Sollux pulled Eridan into a kiss, hard and desperate with his ears pinned flat to his own skull. Eridan obliged him for a second before pulling back, one arm bracing against the small of his back as he stretched. “Five minutes,” Sollux said, pulling his hood down and shaking out his hair. Eridan smiled, almost, face more of an apologetic grimace than anything else. He retreated to the bathroom, leaving Sollux to himself.

Sollux paced around Eridan’s living room, counting the seconds to keep himself grounded as the constant numb void gnawed at his skull along with the doomed. His gut roiled. He hated this. He felt stupid being here, seeing Eridan when he was in such a state, but he didn’t know what else to do. Reckless sex was better than overdosing. He didn’t even know if it counted as reckless, considering he knew and trusted Eridan by this point.

Eridan came back after 237 seconds, face pale and almost as wet as Sollux’s. “Don’ give me that look,” he said, sniffing and lifting his chin. “You never heard a’ washin’ your face before, you fuckin’ pleb?” He glanced to the door as Sollux approached, but didn’t protest the kiss that followed. Instead he put a hand to the back of Sollux’s neck, fingers curling around the wisps of hair there. Sollux moaned into Eridan’s mouth, jittery and desperate for the sensation, for being wanted and feeling for the first time in weeks. He didn’t protest as Eridan pushed him against the back of the couch, only wincing as Eridan forced his head back by the horns.

“What are you trying to do, asshole?” Sollux said. He yelped as his upper body bent over the back of the couch, and he scrambled to try and grab onto Eridan to pull himself back up. He wasn’t sure if Eridan was even playing into the scene Sollux had proposed all half-assed, because they never really stayed outside the scene room after that usually. “Nnggf-- C’mon gimme _something_ , holy shit, is this what you call defending your hive?”

Eridan kept his grip firm, looking off to the side again before rolling his eyes. “You think you’re worth the trouble?” He slid a leg between Sollux’s, pressing his knee against Sollux’s crotch. “You’re gonna sit tight ‘til the cops get here.”

Sollux groaned, reaching out and grabbing at Eridan’s wrist not occupied by pinning him back. He missed completely, swatting at empty air instead. “I don’t want to wait just do something I can’t--” He couldn’t help sounding frantic as his head kept whirling with the doomed, louder and louder before without anything to stimulate him. He needed something harder, something rougher and faster than just getting tied up and left in a corner to stew in his own slurry or whatever else Eridan was planning for him. “Please, ED, just take me to the room, I’m serious, _binary,_ stop and take me to the room!”

Eridan let go before Sollux could finish his sentence, just in time for the front door to slam open. Sollux hadn’t even straightened up before Eridan let out a yell, staggering back as the invading troll punched him in the jaw with the fury and weight of a freight train.

“Get off him you piece of shit what the everliving _fuck_ are you--”

“Oh my god, Kar, I’m not the bad guy here for once I wasn’t doin’ anythin’--”

“ _Eridan?_ ” Karkat stopped mid-punch, fingers loosening for a brief moment before tightening back into a fist. He punched Eridan again, straight to the nose. By some miracle, Eridan's nose didn't snap in half. “My question still stands, asshole.”

Sollux scrambled forward, grabbing Karkat by the arm and pulling him back. “What the hell, KK, how’d you get here?” He looked to Eridan, swallowing hard. “I didn’t call him here, honest.”

“I know,” said Eridan, gingerly pressing a palm to the side of his nose as his eyes watered. “I did.”

“What?” Sollux looked between Eridan and then Karkat, who looked just as bewildered as he was. Eridan reached into his back pocket, managing a sheepish half-smile as he wiggled the phone he held. Sollux felt at his back pocket, not really expecting to feel anything. Eridan had stolen his phone at some point.

“Why- How did you even get here, Ampora?” Something in Karkat’s voice sounded frail and broken, and all his muscles remained tense under Sollux’s hand.

“How did I get here?” Eridan said, baffled. “ _How did I get here?_ Kar, this is my fuckin’ _apartment,_ I didn’t think you could get so _obtuse_.”

“No!” Karkat pointed in Eridan’s face, remembering his anger from only moments before. “You shut the fuck up. You don’t get to act so- so fucking casual with me! _Why did you call me?_ Just so I can watch you beat the shit out of Sollux again? Are you that fucked in the pan, that morally bankrupt you- you- you repugnant, backwater _dogshit_?”

Eridan’s shoulders hunched, drawing his hands to his chest, the words only just falling short of physically wounding him. “Look, I- Kar, I- I know I fucked up, I just--”

“Fucked up!” Karkat let out a shrill laugh, and Sollux tightened his grip to keep the mutant from lunging. “Fucked up is forgetting to feed your lusus or bailing on a date, not killing two people in a fucking bulge-measuring contest!”

“KK, stop,” Sollux said, jerking at Karkat’s arm. In front of them, Eridan looked ready to fold in on himself and into another pocket of the universe. “He texted you to- Get me?” His head still felt foggy and out of it, and he couldn’t help feeling betrayed. He’d wanted to feel better, and he’d even managed to pull himself away from the pills just to get treated like a wiggler again.

Karkat’s lip twisted, and he dug his phone out of his pocket. “If you didn’t, apparently so,” he said. He unlocked his phone, flipping it around so Sollux could see.

> karkat?  
> WHAT  
> WHAT DID I DO TO EARN FULL NAME STATUS?  
> NAMELY WHAT DID YOU DO?  
> DID YOU BURN LOFI BEATS ONTO MY COPY OF “OBSCENELY OPULENT TO THE POINT OF INSANE INDIVIDUALS FROM THE EASTERN REGION FEATURING ONE SLIGHTLY LESS OPULENT BUT NO LESS CUNNING YOUNG WOMAN WHO WINS THE HEART OF THE HEIR TO THE METAPHORICAL THRONE AND GOES ON TO POKER FACE HER WAY THROUGH DASTARDLY SOCIAL POLITICS OBSTACLE COURSES,” AGAIN?  
> DOES THE PHRASE LIMITED EDITION BLU RAY MEAN NOTHING TO YOU CAPTOR? I KNOW, SOMETIMES, IT CAN BE DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO PARSE THE MEANING OF VALUE IN TERMS OF FINE CINEMA, EVEN MORE SO IN REGARDS TO MY COLLECTION OF ROMCOMS, BUT I THOUGHT WE WENT OVER THIS ALREADY. I DON’T WANT TO FUCKING HAVE TO GET IT FIXED AGAIN, DAVE AND JADE WILL MOCK ME RELENTLESSLY FOR LETTING IT HAPPEN MORE THAN ONCE.  
> er  
> i dont know if he did that  
> can you even burn music onto blu ray  
> anyways could you come to this address  
> **4237 chessing st apt 11  
** > WAIT HOW DID YOU GET THIS PHONE?  
> WHAT DID YOU DO TO SOLLUX?  
> hes okay  
> kind of  
> hes not doin so hot can you come pick him up  
> im really worried about him how soon can you get here  
> WHO IS THIS?  
> HELLO????  
> ANSWER ME YOU FUCKING BASTARD.  
> IF ANYTHING HAPPENED TO SOLLUX THEN YOU BETTER PICK A GOD AND PRAY, BUT ONLY FOR YOUR OWN COMFORT. BECAUSE THERE WILL BE NO MERCIFUL DEITY THAT WOULD BE ABLE TO STAND BETWEEN MY ALMIGHTY WRATH AND YOUR PATHETIC MORTAL COIL.  
> FUCK. FINE. I’LL BE THERE IN FIVE MINUTES.  
> perfect

Sollux looked back to Eridan, who still had his shoulders hunched into painful knots. “I’m fine,” he said, baring his teeth. “You should be happy I’m here.”

Eridan glowered. “What, happy you’re miserable? You need someone who can help.” His faint stutter had returned, lip trembling over his w’s. “I’m nobody. I’m just the guy that ruined fuckin’ everythin’ in the first place like a scared wiggler.” His eyes couldn’t help catching Karkat’s, and he averted his gaze to instead stare at the floor. “We ain’t even in a quad, Captor, maybe quit thinkin’ like we are. You should’ve gone to him first.”

Sollux’s grip loosened on Karkat’s arm. Something in his stomach sank, his blood rushing in his ears while the doomed screamed in a nightmarish crescendo. “No I know we’re not but you make me so fucking happy, ED, I thought…” He trailed off, rubbing at his forehead. “You give me back control when I feel like shit like this.”

Karkat grabbed Sollux by the shoulder, turning him so they were facing each other. “I told you to call me if you hit a fucking downswing. I told you--”

“Yeah, I know,” Sollux said. “But this helped every other time.”

Karkat stared at him, looking to Eridan as if asking for an explanation. Eridan only shrugged, and so Karkat turned his attention back to Sollux. “And you haven’t taken anything once, since you met up with him again?”

“Yeah, nothing.”

“Are you being honest? Fucking piss-in-the-cup honest with me, no drugs?”

“Yes!” Sollux jerked out of Karkat’s grip, scrubbing at his face. He couldn’t meet Eridan’s eye, not willing to expose himself to the fall-apart pity plastered on the seadweller’s face. He tried to gather himself and failed, gripping onto the couch instead as another wave of screams whirled around his skull. “I’m just a pathetic sack of shit.”

He felt two hands on his face as he bowed his head, one warm and one cool. He heard Karkat take a deep breath. “The field in which I grow my fucks is languishing in the hot sun with how many I have to give to that statement, Sollux, you fucking moron. In fact, the field of fucks is completely fucking barren, bare as a newly molted wiggler’s ass, and the economy for fucks given is failing as we speak.” Karkat papped him again, movements a little stiff but not protesting as Eridan’s thumb stroked Sollux’s cheek.

Sollux let out a bitter laugh. “You fucking windbag.” Eridan laughed as well, trying and failing to cover it up by clearing his throat.

“It’s my job to be a windbag, fuckhead.” Karkat kept up the fearsome paphand, and Sollux felt his shoulders relaxing.

Eridan leaned in as well, hesitating before resting his chin between Sollux’s horns and letting out a cautious purr. “Let’s get you lyin’ down, c’mon,” he said, stepping back and taking hold of Sollux’s wrist. “Just for a bit, Kar, just so he can chill out.”

Sollux groaned as Karkat took his hand away. “What the fuck, no. I’m fine. Why are you both taking each other’s sides?”

“Because you’re a fucking disaster,” Karkat said, sticking close as Eridan led the way to the bedroom. “But you’re my--” He paused. “...Our disaster.”

Eridan’s fingers tightened a bit around Sollux, but not tight enough for complaint. He opened the door, letting Karkat and Sollux in before pulling his hand away. “You can jam in here,” he said. He opened his mouth to say something before thinking better of it, biting his lip and turning away.

Sollux reached out, grabbing Eridan at the same as Karkat grabbed his other arm. Sollux and Eridan both stared at Karkat, who huffed. “What? You said he helped you stay off drugs. That earns a bit of fucking leeway.” He looked down, and for once he looked his height-- small and full of none of his usual fire. “He did what I couldn’t.”

“Kar.” Sollux hadn’t heard Eridan’s voice dripping with pity like that before, aching and horrifically sad. Eridan lifted his arms free of their grips, putting both his hands on either of Karkat’s cheeks. “Kar, I don’ know your quad, but don’ go loadin’ all the shit on yourself like you always do. It ain’t your fault. It was never your fault.” Somehow, it didn’t seem like he was talking about Sollux’s drug habit.

Karkat took a deep breath, closing his eyes. “I should’ve tried harder. I’m a fucking awful friend and a worse quadrant. I wasn’t there for him. I wasn’t there for you- I could’ve stopped everything from happening if I hadn’t blown you off so fucking much after Feferi dumped you, I could’ve made you see sense, I could’ve fucking moved to actually stand in your way, I could’ve de-escalated the situation before it began, Sollux wouldn’t listen to me, he wouldn’t- you wouldn’t--” He was babbling now, breath starting to hitch in a pathetic way that made Sollux’s heart ache.

Eridan seemed to have things mostly under control however, thumb wiping away the first of more than a few fat tears sliding from under Karkat’s closed lids. “No. Stop it. _Stop it_ . It wasn’t your fault,” he repeated, more firm this time. “I was a fuckin’ genocidal fuckwit of a wiggler, I didn’t think about the consequences of my actions, and I was scared. _Fuck_ , I’d never been scared like that before. I just... didn’t want to _die_.” His voice dropped for a moment, lips moving to form words, reaching to find the right ones. “I had a long time to think about what I did an’ I know there’s nothin’ I can do to change it. If you’d’ve stood in my way you would’ve died and frankly I like not havin’ your death on my hands on top of everythin’ else weighin’ me down.” His voice cracked a bit, and he shook his head, clearing his throat. “Hey, let’s all lie down. Okay?”

Sollux settled onto the bed first, with Eridan and Karkat lying down on either side of him. He still felt like shit even after the paps, but resigned himself to the constant misery hanging over him. Karkat seemed to have other ideas, scooting into him and pressing a pale kiss to his temple. “Don’t think I forgot about you,” he said.

“I’m fine,” Sollux said, staring at the ceiling.

“Bullshit,” said Eridan. “You came to my place, soakin’ wet to the skin and frantic as fuck. You still look shaky, actually. Bit like a nervous wiggler at the docterror’s.” He leaned in, kissing Sollux’s cheek. “We’re both here for you.” He leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to Sollux’s lips.

Sollux let out a muffled noise of irritation but didn’t pull away, shoulders sagging as he returned the kiss. He could almost feel Karkat’s radiating embarrassment, and the mutant sat up as if to get away from them. Sollux broke the kiss and grabbed onto Karkat’s shirt, pulling him back in. “Please,” he said, and then kissed Karkat hard.

Karkat’s eyes were wide, flicking back behind Sollux to Eridan. “It’s okay, Kar,” Eridan said. “If you want to…? I ain’t gonna judge your diamond.”

Karkat pulled from the kiss all the same, forehead wrinkled up. “The fuck are you playing at, Captor?”

“Please,” Sollux said again, fingers curling in the front of Karkat’s shirt. “I don’t want to think anymore, I want to feel something. Both of you.”

Karkat looked incredulous, jumping a bit as Eridan sat up as well and kissed him right on the forehead. “I missed you too,” Eridan said. “You can leave if you really want.”

When Eridan kissed his lips Karkat didn’t protest this time, expression relaxing as his eyes slid shut. Sollux couldn’t help how his cheeks heated up, lying down and looking up at the pair of them. Eridan wasn’t one to leave him abandoned, reaching a hand underneath Sollux’s shirt to stroke at his chest. Karkat, however, seemed to be getting very into pushing the kiss into firm sloppy makeout territory.

Eridan broke the kiss first, leaning in to whisper something into Karkat’s ear. Karkat flushed a bright red, blinking as he looked back down to Sollux. “What? No!”

“Shhh!” Eridan bopped Karkat on the nose with a single finger, looking to Sollux as well.

“What the fuck?” Sollux asked, squinting.

“Nothing,” Eridan and Karkat said together. Eridan snorted, moving in to start kissing Sollux next. Karkat, meanwhile, shuffled to start shedding layers. Sollux shivered as he heard clothes hit the floor, whining into the kiss and biting at Eridan’s lip.

“Hey, relax,” Eridan said, pulling back. “It’s okay.” He stroked some hair out of Sollux’s face.

“It’s not,” Sollux said. “You wanted to send me away. We’re not even a quadrant you said--”

“I’m sorry.” Eridan closed his eyes, grimacing. “But it jus’ didn’ seem fair to just act like you were okay. Ignore all the quadrant stuff, I fuckin’ care about you, Sol. I was so fuckin’ scared of Kar still hatin’ me, an’ if you were usin’ your eyes for a hot second you’d see that for a bit I was right on that front. But I still called him to help.” He looked over to Karkat, shirt already tossed to the ground. “This wasn’ really how I expected it to be-- like, I kinda expected a little more bruisin’ an’ verbal lambastin’ of my moral character, but I ain’t complainin’.”

“Look, Ampora can be an idiot about feelings. This is pretty fucking established and I have to wonder where the fuck you’ve been literally all our life if you haven’t puzzled that out. But the short of it is we both care about you, Sollux,” Karkat said, papping Sollux’s cheek again. “You make my pusher break in two.”

“Here, you’ve got too much on.” Eridan reached out, helping Sollux into a sitting position so they could all get undressed. Sollux wasted no time, stripping down naked. Karkat stared.

“Were you even wearing any underwear?”

“Nope,” Sollux said, peeling off his soaked socks.

“Did you run out, or were you just bein’ a kinky shit?” Eridan said, eyebrows raised.

“Both,” Sollux said, hitting Eridan with a sock.

Eridan whined, peeling the sock off his face and letting it fall to the floor. “You’re so fuckin’ gross.”

He pushed Sollux down before he could retort, kissing and nipping into Sollux’s neck. Sollux gasped, legs falling open as a warm hand found its way to his nook. Karkat slid a finger inside, thrusting it in as far as it could reach. “Stop me if you don’t want me here, Sollux,” he said. “I’m serious, I swear to fuck.”

“He’ll let you know,” Eridan said, taking a break from kissing and getting up from the bed. “Binary if his mouth’s free--”

“Two taps with the first two fingers if it’s not,” Sollux finished, tapping at Karkat’s arm to demonstrate.

“Huh.” Karkat looked back down to his task, ears going a bit more red as he added another finger. “You guys got it figured out, don’t you?”

“You haven’t even seen the other room yet,” Eridan said. He coughed, averting his gaze when Karkat needled him with a squint. “Not that you would.”

Sollux tried to add to the conversation, but all intelligent thought got blasted out of his head as Karkat curled his two fingers in a come-hither motion. “Hnnnngf.”

“Nice try, Sol.” Eridan had gotten naked as well as they talked, rejoining the pair of them back on the bed. “But it’s not your job to talk right now. You’re here to make us feel good.”

Karkat shot Eridan a look, which dissipated as Sollux shivered and rocked his hips against his fingers. Eridan got up, and with no pretense straddled Sollux’s face. “You sure you got him back there, Kar?”

“Yes,” Karkat said. “I’ll break his twiggy neck.”

“I’m going to use your thighs as earmuffs by the end of tonight, KK I--” Eridan cut Sollux off, sitting on his face and settling down. Sollux moaned, vibrating the folds of Eridan’s nook and making the seadweller squirm. Eridan started to rock his hips, slow and deliberate while Sollux swirled circles around his nook and the bottom of his sheathe with his tongue.

Occasionally Sollux flagged even as his own bulges unsheathed, still feeling low energy as he had the past week, but each time he did Eridan smacked lightly at his ribs. “Focus, Sol,” he said, a purr to his words. “C’mon. We’ve got you. You can keep going.”

Karkat meanwhile remained silent, terrifying Sollux up until he felt Karkat’s other hand on his bulges. Karkat gathered both of them into one hand, licking a long stripe up the bottom of one before sucking down on the other. Sollux moaned even louder, head tipping back so his chin pressed up into Eridan’s nook. Eridan trilled, tangling a hand into Sollux’s hair while his other hand kept a firm grip on the headboard to keep himself steady.

Before long Sollux felt his bulges stiffening under Karkat’s attention, which left him whining with faint distress. He didn’t want to tap at Eridan or Karkat. He wanted to keep going. Eridan pulled away all the same, scooting back to sit on Sollux’s chest with a faint trail of violet slurry left behind. “Kar, reach into my end table. You’ll see two silicone rings over there.”

“A red and a blue one?” Karkat sounded very unimpressed, lifting up the two bulgerings he’d pulled out. “Was this you, Sollux?”

“S’my idea,” Sollux said. He squirmed. “Put them on, quick, I’m going to die.”

“Isn’t that the opposite of what you want?” Karkat said. “Where’s your pail, Ampora?”

“That’s the point,” Eridan said. “He doesn’t get to come yet.”

“Huh,” Karkat said again, voice rising a half octave. “Oh, okay. Sure. We need to have a long talk after this about the core of what you’ve really been getting up to this whole time, Sollux, but-- okay, less talking, more... yeah. Yeah.”

Sollux snickered, trailing off into a gasp as Eridan reached forward and helped slide the rings over both of Sollux’s engorged bulges. Sollux chirped, hips thrusting into empty air. “Fuck yeah. Come on, someone fuck me.”

Karkat buried his face in his hands, only for Eridan to tug him forward into another kiss. “Seriously, try it.”

Karkat groaned, but the bulge squirming a crimson mess onto his thigh betrayed his enthusiasm. “Tap me if you need me to get off, Sollux. Or if you need to breathe. Or literally fucking anything,” he said.

“Sure, whatever,” Sollux said, reaching out for Karkat. Only instead of facing Sollux and holding onto the headboard as Eridan had been Karkat turned away, shuffling backwards to position his nook. Sollux wasn’t going to complain much, especially when Karkat leaned forward, taking one of Sollux’s bulges into his mouth completely. Sollux ran a hand along Karkat’s ribs, hand stroking over his soft curves before coming to rest on his plush hips. Karkat’s roundness had always made him an optimal cuddler for feelings jams. Sollux had never thought about how soft and warm he’d be on top of him.

Eridan stayed away for a few moments, no doubt enjoying the view before reaching out. “Hey, you two,” he said, smacking at Karkat’s hip. “Scoot to the edge of the bed so I can get in there.”

“Oh my god,” Karkat said, gasping as he came up for air. “We just fucking started, asshole, give us a minute.” Sollux whined helplessly in the background, like a fucking tool.

“It’s not my fault you’re bad at sixty-nine placement,” Eridan said. “Sheesh, color me disappointed. I would've thought it came naturally to you, Kar.”

“Why?”

“I mean, that’s what your sign means, right?”

Karkat yelled, reaching out and smacking Eridan’s hip. Eridan cackled, skittering off to the side so Karkat couldn’t reach him anymore. Karkat swung off of Sollux, grumbling even louder as Sollux started snickering the moment he surfaced. “You’re both terrible and I’m disowning you from my life,” he said, letting Sollux scoot until his legs hung off the bed.

“Kar, you can’t actually do that, that’s not, like, a thing,” Eridan replied, very casual for someone who had just had his nook eaten out.

“Yes, I fucking can!” Karkat said, voice a harsh squawk. “Watch me, you insolent asshole! Again, do I need to reiterate the whole, ‘you’re both fucking terrible’ bit? Because it is true, you’re the absolute _worst_.”

“Yeah, but you still pity me for some reason,” Sollux said. “Pale for you.”

“God. Pale for you too, dumbass.” Karkat clambered back on top of Sollux in the same position as before, lips closing around one of Sollux’s bulges again.

Eridan hooked his hands under the crook of Sollux’s knees, pulling him forward further. “Lift your hips a bit, Sol.”

Sollux did his best to oblige without jostling Karkat, rocking up to expose his nook. Already he felt overwhelmed and frantic, sweat beading along his forehead. His state of mind meant overstimulation came without effort, and sex didn’t take much to drive him over an edge that never had a drop with the rings around his bulges.

Eridan took the hint, letting go of one of Sollux’s legs just long enough to guide his bulge into Sollux’s nook. Karkat lifted his head off of Sollux, taking a break to lick at the still-exposed section of Eridan’s bulge. Sollux could feel his tongue rasping against both of them.

Too turned on to think Sollux made an impulsive decision, shifting from Karkat’s warm nook to his even hotter bulge, coaxing it in. Sollux parted his jaws as far as they would extend, choking a bit as the bulge started fucking his throat.

“Sollux,” Karkat said, growling.

“You good, Sol?” Eridan asked. Sollux lifted a hand, giving Eridan a thumbs up. “See? Uh, actually with this angle I don’t know if you did, but he gave a thumbs up. He likes it, honest, it’s prolly jus’ a bit for him to get adjusted to. _God,_ Kar, you’d burn my ass in a flash with skin-to-skin contact alone.”

Karkat tsked, but his disapproval melted into needy want as Sollux slurped around his bulge. “I’ll have to test that at some point, don’t think I won’t.” He let out a shuddering croon and went back to Sollux’s own, switching from one bulge to the other as Eridan fully seated himself inside Sollux’s nook.

Eridan started fucking Sollux in earnest, one hand keeping Sollux’s leg up while the other alternated between gripping his hip and running his fingers through Karkat’s hair. “That’s it, Sol, see?” He spoke softly, the effect ruined only slightly by how he panted with each thrust and curl of his bulge. “Relax. You don’ have to carry shit on your own. We’re here for you. We’ve got you.”

Sollux shuddered, eyes watering as he continued deep-throating Karkat with nothing at all to do with emotion. He flailed out a hand, and Eridan held it. Karkat raised his head again, kissing the base of Sollux’s bulge. “You’re okay,” he said, echoing Eridan with no less sincerity. “Nothing’s going to happen to you. I’ll tear this whole fucking planet apart with my own bare hands and smear the lifeblood of every fucking being into cosmic radiation before I let anything happen to you again.”

Sollux couldn’t help whimpering around Karkat, squeezing at Eridan’s hand and then stroking at Karkat’s back along his spine. He couldn’t speak right now, but even if he could he wouldn’t know what to say. _Thanks for fucking me? You make me feel wanted? You make me feel alive?_

Eridan picked up the pace then, driving any further thoughts away. Sollux started moaning steadily, voice a garbled, choked mess. Every noise he made had Karkat’s bulge thickening, and when it finally reached a dangerous level Sollux tapped twice at Karkat’s thigh. Karkat hesitated, but lifted his hips after a murmur of reassurance from Eridan. “Sollux, you okay?” The sentence took a few tries to be intelligible, with how hard Karkat was panting.

“Mmmhmm, yeah,” Sollux said. He squeaked after a hard thrust from Eridan, who hadn’t let up. He hadn’t been tapped, and Sollux hadn’t planned to. “Pail me too. Use me.”

Karkat’s jaw dropped, while Eridan’s eyes lit up. “Kar, sit behind him and get him in your lap. I’ll join you.”

“No, what the fuck? Are you suggesting we both fucking pail him simultaneously? As in, like, both bulges at once _and_ blowing our slurry in him?” Karkat said. “He’ll break into pieces! Daresay I think his nook would stay open in a permanent gape and _god_ , that is _not_ a pretty picture.”

Eridan snickered. “Trust me, Kar, as active as your imagination can be, I’m speakin’ from experience when I say he knows what he’s doin’. Actually, I’d wager he’s fit more into him,” Eridan said as he stepped back, and Karkat had to put a hand to his bulge to keep it from leaking too much slurry. “You sure you wanna try, Captor?”

“Bring it,” Sollux said, making grabby hands for Karkat. He felt horribly empty without anything in him, and his bulges ached with slurry he couldn’t release. Karkat squinted, still skeptical as he moved behind Sollux on the bed. He got Sollux seated, guiding his bulge into place. Sollux arched his back as the bulge thrust into him, thicker than Eridan’s even at the thinnest point. “Ohhhh. Oh _fuck_ , you’re warm.”

“You had me in your fucking mouth, you gremlin, this shouldn’t be a fucking surprise to you unless you were treating it about as seriously as sucking on a lollipop,” Karkat said, laughing and kissing the back of Sollux’s neck. “Okay, Ampora, get in here.”

Eridan didn’t need Karkat to ask him twice, leaning in and kissing Sollux. Sollux leaned forward, hips rolling as Karkat fucked him while he slid his tongue into Eridan’s mouth. No doubt he tasted like slurry, but Eridan only deepened the kiss more. When he pulled away to get a judge on where to fit his bulge, his lips were smeared scarlet. After some maneuvering, Eridan’s bulge squeezed alongside Karkat’s to start sliding into Sollux’s nook.

Sollux yelled, throwing his neck back as the two trolls filled him almost to the breaking point. Both shushed him, kissing into his neck and his face, his lips, his shoulder blades, everywhere they could reach while their bulges twined together. Sollux gasped for air, never getting enough as the dichotomy between hot and cold moved in perfect synergy with each other. Eridan and Karkat moved their bulges almost like Sollux did on his own, bulges curling around each other only to part and stretch Sollux like he’d never imagined with someone else.

Sollux clutched at Eridan as someone brushed against his shameglobes, too overwhelmed to register who. “Fuck, fuck, please, fuck me, please, don’t stop,” he gasped, on the verge of hyperventilating as his nails dug into Eridan’s arms.

“We won’t, it’s okay,” Eridan said. His face had flushed a lazy violet, fins fanning as pheromones wafted thick into the air from his neck. Flushed pheromones, not just pailing pheromones, although Sollux was in no mood to point that out. “We’ve got you.”

Karkat nipped at the back of Sollux’s neck, a purr rumbling deep in his barrel chest. He had nothing to say for once, only a grunt and a long moan as his hips thrust forward one last time. Sollux yelped as hot slurry flooded into him, seedflap opening and sucking the material into his gene bladder. Eridan wasn’t far behind, and Sollux’s vision went white as Karkat’s blinding heat was cut through with Eridan’s coolness.

Sollux slumped forward, limp against Eridan and helpless to hold himself up. “Lemme… Ohhhh god. Fuck. Oh fuck.”

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Eridan said, wrapping his arms around Sollux. “Need a second?”

Sollux nodded, shaky and unsteady as Eridan steadied him in Karkat’s lap.

“You’re not going to let him empty out?” Karkat leaned back, putting a hand behind him to brace himself up.

“Mmmmnah,” Sollux said, wobbling as he smoothed a hand over his distended stomach. He’d never been this full before, and the fact he hadn’t climaxed yet filled him with delirious pleasure. He felt on the verge of passing out, tongue hanging from his mouth as he continued drooling red slurry onto his chin. “M’good.”

Eridan snorted, reaching under his bed to grab the pail. Sollux whimpered as Eridan’s bulge went with him. “I bet. Okay, you needy shithead, get over here.”

Sollux whined, but lifted off of Karkat’s bulge and crawling forward to the edge of the bed. He swung his legs over, letting Eridan position him over the pail. Karkat came over too, watching with more than a little interest as Eridan removed the bulgerings.

Sollux needed only a cursory stroke from Eridan before he wailed, falling back onto the bed while Eridan kept his lower half suspended over the pail. His own slurry came first, hitting the sides of the pail. Karkat swore under his breath, reaching out and stroking at Sollux’s stomach. Sollux’s muscles convulsed, trying to force out the slurry mixing inside of him.

Eridan reached out too, helping to massage Sollux’s stomach. After a few drips of violet and scarlet Sollux let out another whimper and arched his back, moaning as he released the bulk of the slurry in one smooth motion. He orgasmed again as he did so, his bulges letting out a shallow spurt of his own slurry as his legs shook.

Sollux threw an arm over his eyes, only half because of his exhaustion. Tears started leaking from his eyes, more than Karkat had cried earlier. Neither of the other two registered why he’d moved, content with stroking his stomach and his hair until Sollux let out a shuddering sob.

At once Karkat pulled his hand back, instead papping at Sollux’s cheek while Eridan tried to pry Sollux’s arm from his eyes. “Sollux, hey. Are you okay?” Karkat shuffled, getting Sollux’s head into his lap. “Look at me.”

Sollux met his eyes, gasping and shuddering as tears continued to stream down his cheeks. “Y-yeah,” he said. “Yeah, m’okay. I dunno why I’m crying.” He raised a fist, rubbing at one of his eyes.

The bed creaked as Eridan got onto the bed with them, and he pushed at Karkat so they could get Sollux’s legs onto the platform. “You feelin’ any better?”

“Yeah, that’s the worst part,” Sollux said, rubbing at his other eye. His chest continued to heave with each hiccuping breath, and he still found himself unable to stop crying for the life of him. “I feel so fucking good right now. I’m stupid.”

“You’re not stupid, numbnuts,” Karkat said, stroking Sollux’s hair and rubbing his hornbeds. He’d started purring again, rattling Sollux’s pan in a pleasant way. “I bet that was a hell of an emotional release.”

Sollux laughed wetly, putting his arm back over his eyes only for Eridan to tug it away again. “I am, though. I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve either of you.”

“Lies and slander, Captor,” Eridan said, flicking his nose. “You’re pathetic. You’re pitiful. You’re hopeless without either of us and you deserve the whole fuckin’ world. I’m just glad you let me get a piece of it once in a while.”

Sollux reached out, pulling Eridan in and kissing him. “Maybe come to my place sometime, then.” His crying had started to ease up, as it had been more of a physical reaction more than anything else. Definitely.

Eridan looked to Karkat, who snorted and waved a hand. “Don’t pull any stunts, Ampora, you’re on thin fucking ice.”

Eridan squealed then, a sound that startled the tears right out of Sollux completely. Eridan grabbed Karkat by the shoulders, kissing him hard on the lips with his eyes screwed shut. When he pulled back, his eyes shone with tears of his own. “You mean it?”

“I don’t hate you, if that’s what you fucking mean.” Karkat rubbed the back of his neck, looking away. “I don’t think I ever did. I was just… Angry. With myself, mostly, for being a bad fucking friend.”

Eridan kissed Karkat again, leaning their foreheads together. “I don’t think you were a bad friend, if it’s worth anythin’,” Eridan said. “If anythin’ you were just as bad a friend as I was.”

Karkat let out a wet laugh, managing a half-grin. “I don’t know if you meant to console me or insult me with that.”

“Take it as both, then.” They stayed like that for a minute, until Eridan sat back. “Let’s get a shower,” he said, wrinkling his nose. “I ain’t sleepin’ in crusty slurry, an’ I think I need an icepack. I was right, Kar, your bulge is fire.”

* * *

 

They all piled back into bed for a nap after a joint shower, in which Karkat and Eridan sniped at each other nonstop over everything from the water pressure to the temperature while Sollux sat on the tile and scrubbed his hair lethargically. Sollux went back to the middle, as he had upon them first coming into the room, Karkat tucked into his chest while Eridan acted as the big spoon. Karkat fell asleep in a few minutes, snoring. Only then did Eridan speak.

“Sorry, for everythin’ I said earlier,” he said.

“You don’t have to apologize,” Sollux said. “You were telling the truth. I was being a dipshit.”

“No but listen.” Sollux felt Eridan shift behind him, burying his face into Sollux’s back. “You did need Kar, but… I shouldn’t have said that shit about it not matterin’ ‘cause we ain’t in a quadrant or whatever. Not officially, anyways.”

“Do you want to be?”

Eridan stayed silent so long, Sollux almost started sweating again. Finally, he spoke up with, “Kinda. Didn’t know how to mention it, ‘specially not with our whole… Arrangement.”

“That doesn’t have to stop,” Sollux said. “Shit, ED, you could have a fucking whip to my back and I’d be flushed to the pusher for you.” He pet Karkat’s hair, letting him murmur and nuzzle more into his chest. “I think KK is too.”

Eridan sniffled. “Stop it. You’re gonna make me cry. Asshole. I’m pretty sure tryin’ to make me feel an emotion when you’re the one feelin’ like shit is illegal somewhere on this backwards-ass planet.”

Sollux snorted, reaching back behind him and patting at Eridan’s hip. “Fucking hypocrite. Weren’t you telling me to let out earlier?”

“That was different,” Eridan said, grumbling. “Like I said, you needed it.”

“You’re just as emotionally stunted. Don’t make me take the fall for that insult, either.”

“Maybe I will.” Eridan sighed, pressing an absent kiss to Sollux’s back. “Goodnight, Sol. God, fuck this diurnal system. Fuck the sun.”

“Wait, fuck, don’t you have work today? You’ve got two jobs.”

“It was the mechanic job today,” Eridan said, yawning. “I called in sick after texting Kar. Psii’s a hardass, but he knows I don’t call out for nothin’.”

“Who?”

“My boss. Don’ worry about it. Night, Sol.”

“It’s not even night.”

“Sol, if you don’ go the fuck to sleep right now I’m kickin’ you out and hoggin’ Kar to myself.”

They didn’t speak more after that, and soon enough Eridan’s breathing evened out to match Karkat’s. Sollux stayed awake longer, running his hand along Karkat’s hip while Eridan’s cool weight pressed against his back. Hot and cold, on either side of him, keeping him at a perfect equilibrium. The sex hadn’t solved everything. That’d be stupid to think, that pailing could substitute for therapy or whatever else he needed for his traitorous pan.

Still, the pair of them had kept him sober for another day. They could do it again, with words or sex or by dragging him by the ankles into a shower. Where one faltered, the other could brace him up again. Sollux closed his eyes. His shoulders shook as he started to cry again, the tears falling amongst Karkat’s curls. He didn’t deserve this, he really didn’t. He didn’t deserve to feel so happy, or loved.

Behind him, Eridan let out a soft sigh, throwing an arm over him and holding him tight. Karkat shifted too, still asleep yet managing to get at Sollux’s face with more of a smack than a pap. Sollux cried until his eyes burned, happy tears that made him feel light. He held Karkat to him, burying his face into his shoulder as he nestled himself into Eridan.

“Flushed for you,” he said.

“Flushed for you too,” Eridan replied, voice heavy with sleep. “Mmm. Y’good?”

Sollux stiffened, but relaxed as Eridan rubbed his back. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m okay. I’ll be okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I just want to thank you all so much for holding out for me for this last chapter! I've had trouble writing much of anything lately, but there's something about upd8s that always sees a massive outpouring of creativity. In my case, it was epilogue spite. I'm hope you all enjoyed this final chapter and erikarsol in these trying times. Thanks to @eganov for helping me with Karkat and Eridan dialogue (mostly Karkat good GOD does that boy love to talk).


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